


The Very Worst White Mage

by horsechiffon



Series: Bufoonery in the First [1]
Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Abuse, CW: White mages, Chapter 7 will be the explicit one, Dark Humor, FFXI white magery, Gen, Inflcting my OC on someone else's OC, It's a few chapters out but, M/M, Medical stuff, Multi, Poor Aza Lynel, Tragic Backstories TM, Trauma, Violence, any scene that looks like its gonna get sexy does not, everyone has PTSD, wacky hijinks
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-04
Updated: 2020-04-02
Packaged: 2020-10-06 18:41:07
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 13
Words: 25,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20511677
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/horsechiffon/pseuds/horsechiffon
Summary: Aza Lynel meets a curious White Mage on his travels.orHe felt a tug so sickening that he nearly fainted, his instincts forcing his arms to wildly drive his blade into the beast mauling him. It died with a screech and landed on top of him. It thankfully burned up into pure aether in the next instant, though Aza was still left with gazing down at his disemboweled organs.“Uh oh,” he said, “Those’re m’guts.”Spoilers for Shadowbringers. Renamed cuz the other title was placeholdery





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [KivaEmber](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KivaEmber/gifts).

> THANK YOU KIVA!!!! For beta'ing and being a sounding wall and all that. So this is a character I've had for a long time that I wanted to reimagine has being a resident of the first. Some of you might have met him... His name is R'dhanha Nunh. He's Rai-Nunn now to pay homage to his previous name! :)

Aza was having one of those days. A real fuckin’ Monday of a day. He had just finally splattered a man-faced bird into the grassy hills with noticeable difficulty when something else snagged his attention.

From just 40 fulms away came a shout. Aza pricked his ears to the source and hurried towards it. As he swiftly cleared the distance, his leg aching like it had been pulled taut and rolled like a cigarette, the distressed figure finally came into view.

He appeared to be a Mystel, easily past his twenties with dull lavender hair and fair skin. He was dressed in white robes that had taken in an a lot of dirt and wear. It was nearly a miracle they weren’t stained brown and yellow.

The attacker was a sin eater typical to the area, swooping menacingly towards the man. Without a second thought, Aza launched himself into the fray, deflecting the creature’s vicious claws. He landed a brutal kick, knocking it out of the sky before cleaving it in half.

Aza, ribs still aching from his precious battle, adrenaline deafening him, didn’t notice the second sin eater until it was upon him. It crashed into him, pinning him to the ground as it thrashed at his belly with reckless abandon, tearing through the armour like it was flimsy paper.

He felt a tug so sickening that he nearly fainted, his instincts forcing his arms to wildly drive his blade into the beast mauling him. It died with a screech and landed on top of him. It thankfully burned up into pure aether in the next instant, though Aza was still left with gazing down at his disemboweled organs.

“Uh oh,” he said, “Those’re m’guts.” 

And then he passed out.

A couple hours later he came to, startling when he realized that he should have died. He sat up, placing a hand over his torn clothing and mended skin, feeling a leech.”Ugh!” He drew his hand back and looked at it, about to pull it off in his delirium.

“Don’t touch that. She’s drawing the internal bleeding out and stimulating your veins.”

Aza looked up sharply (and quickly regretted the action, since everything spun nauseously from the rapid movement), seeing a man sitting opposite him.

The man looked up from the jawbones in his hands, the campfire illuminating him in flickers. Now that Aza could get a clear look at the guy, he let his eyes flick over his form, just generally checking him out. He looked like he had been very pretty in his youth, but middle age had carved lines into his face, speckled his complexion, and began to loosen his skin. Aza guessed that he was around forty-five, but a hard forty-five.

“Oh, thank the Light,” the man said with a huff. “I was worried.”

Well, that was a weird thing to hear here, now wasn’t it. Not the worry, of course. Everyone was always worried about him. But hardly anyone praised the Light after the century of it. It was like a century of eating macaroni salad. Not great, but liveable.

“Weren’t my organs poking out,” Aza said, medically stable but still missing quite a lot of blood.

“They were. I put them back,” the other man said carefully. “You saved me, though you nearly died. But you’re fine now.”

“Sounds about right,” Aza replied while his stomach growled.

“Oh, um,” the man looked around himself with a nervousness before handing over some sort of dumpling. “It’s full of eggs and onions,” he said, trying to be helpful.

Aza nodded, still lightheaded from it all as he took it. He bit into it, his own hunger telling him that it was delicious. It was edible and nutritious at best.

“Who’re you, and why am I not dead?” he asked after biting the dumpling in half in one bite, talking around his mouthful, “Or if I am, why’s hell so boring.”

“You’re not dead,” the man said, tail flicking. “My name is Rai-Nunn. I’m... well. I have my ways. I’m good at healing magic.”

“I’ll say...” Aza put the rest of the dumpling in his mouth, chewing as he inspected himself. “There’s barely a mark!”

“I’m good at healing magic,” he said, repeating himself.

Aza eyed the leech still clinging to his stomach. Mystery man said it was helping him, so was it a leech, or a magical one? “So, is that really a normal leech?”

“Yes...! Don’t touch it! She hasn’t finished yet.”

Aza looked at the other in the face, determining that he seemed to know what he was on about. He shrugged and slouched back over.

“Eh, if you know enough to put my guts in, I guess I’ll trust your leech.”

Rai-Nunn visibly relaxed. “Oh good. I won’t need to sedate you.”

“What?”

“I won’t need to berate you. For moving around too much. Pray give my assistant another hour to do her work.”

“Oh. Uh, okay.” Gross, but okay. “So... what’s with the bones?” Aza asked, finally unable to deal with not knowing anymore.

Rai-Nunn set them on the ground carefully. “These are my brothers: Raq and Rann. They’re my traveling companions.”

Oh. Well. Made sense he supposed. He didn’t carry his sister’s bones, but he got it. He wondered if they still had shades, or if the poor man was just out of his mind with grief. He was too woozy to consider how this whole situation might go badly for him.

“Nice to meet you two, then,” Aza said to the detached jaws. They were in remarkably good shape. He owed it to the careful handling as well as the still dried flesh holding the teeth in.

“They appreciate that,” Rai-Nunn said. “Where are you headed?”

“Oh, just back to Lakeland. I’ve finished my hunting here.”

The other man nodded. “We aren’t far from there, though I didn’t move you too much to begin with. You’re very heavy.”

As Aza looked around at what little was illuminated by the fire, he could see that the other spoke truthfully. He recognized this clearing. 

“You should get into my tent with me. Ever since the night returned, the morning sky has been rather wet.” Rai-Nunn said, spoken truly like a man who had never needed to describe morning rain before.

Aza nodded. Last thing he needed was to die of exposure half a day’s journey from the Crystarium.

He got up, groaned, and his leg buckled underneath him.

“What’s the matter?”

“Leg, whole thing’s fucked,” Aza huffed irritably, rubbing at his throbbing knee, “Ankle, the knee... It’s all old injuries, nothing anyone’s been able to do much for.”

“Oh, well. Let me see what I can do,” the other man put his brothers’ bones back into a bag on his hip and crawled over.

“Nothing is actively like... it’s just healed like this,” Aza said, hoping the man wouldn’t be too disappointed when it didn’t work, “It’s fine.”

He pulled Aza’s leg onto his lap and unsheathed the knife from his cane. As Aza was wondering what sort of weird mage cane would have a knife in it, Rai casually rammed the knife between his kneecap and femur.

“MOTHERFFFUUUUCKER!!”

Aza flopped back, paralyzed with pain. In a brilliant swirling of white the stab of hot agony and all of the age old aches cooled to nothing. No pain? No pain. He jolted upright, panting like he just finished running a marathon, and all but yanked his leg back protectively as he scooted away a few fulms from crazy stabby white mage. His leg felt feather light, unburdened by age and injury.

Rai-Nunn was still holding the knife slicked with Aza’s blood. “Try standing on it.”

“The fuck—“ Aza, too bewildered to do anything but listen to him, stood with ease. He shook out his leg, the absence of pain almost feeling funny. “It’s gone,” he said with genuine surprise. “It’s gone and… and you stabbed me.”

“It puts the magic deeper. Better for old wounds.”

“You could have warned me,” Aza muttered, unsure if he was angry or not.

“You wouldn’t have let me.”

True enough.

“Can I... pay you? Repay you somehow? You’ve just saved my life and fixed my leg...” Aza said, still flexing, moving into squats as he tested his range of motion. He decided he wasn’t angry.

“Well, you saved my life first...” Rai-Nunn chuckled. “I have no real use for coin with how I live. The only thing I want I won’t ask from you.”

“...Well... I’m sort of in a very good mood suddenly, so try me.”

“An evenings’ companionship,” he said simply.

Ah. Oh. Hmm. Of course the healer that could fix his leg would stab him and then ask to fuck. Life was so fucking weird already it might as well just happen.

“Oh, you mean a date?” Aza said airily, slapping on an oblivious smile, “Sure, we can stargaze or something.”

Rai-Nunn deflated slightly, then laughed with his blushing cheeks against his gloved hands. “I was thinking more... the part that comes after. But I understand, it’s a lot to ask.”

He actually called the bluff. Aza was impressed with his boldness, at least. “Yeah, I’m sort of double married and I’d need permission for that sort of thing.”

“That’s alright,” after a moment. “If you weren’t, would you?”

Aza figured he could probably kill him in close range easily enough if it came to it. And was starting to realize that maybe he just didn’t have any social skills. But meant well. Also weird that he didn’t even bat an eye at ‘double married’.

“You’re not a bad-looking guy,” Aza started carefully. “And you’re kind. So, theoretically. Sure.”

Rai-Nunn beamed at him with a wiggle to his ears. “Ah, that makes my heart just soar... I’ve been so lonely of late. I never get to stay anywhere too long before I’m made to move on. Even after I heal the ill. I don’t know why.”

Wordlessly, Rai-Nunn removed a live frog from his satchel and gave it a lick. The frog barely reacted, but did scramble back into the bag instead of out into the wilderness.

Aza had the sudden feeling that he was only looking at the tip of the iceberg with this guy. He’d be safe to sleep here, maybe. He’d probably escape with his life at least. Probably. He’ll sleep with his hand on his sword’s hilt, just in case.

“Is that frog, uh, medicinal or recreational?”

“Bit of both, if I’m honest.” Not a hint of shame. “You want a lick? If you start throwing up I’ll detoxify you.” He reached back into his bag.

“Uh. I’ll pass. Not a big frog-licking fan.”

“I gotcha. Salamanders are better, but they’re so hard to hold and travel with.”

That wasn’t the point, but it seemed to satisfy him well enough.

“So...” this guy had no place to go, huh? “Been kicked out of the Crystarium before?”

“No, no. I’ve never been there. I’m traveling from Eulmore. That place is too thick with sin eaters.”

“But you can defend yourself, surely... you’ve got that really potent white magic.”

“Afraid not. I’ve got my knife, but that doesn’t really do the trick for sin eaters. I’m hopeless when it comes to conjuring a stone or a bit of wind and whatnot.”

To demonstrate, he lifted his hand, casting a simple stone spell. As they sat, green wisps rose from the earth, carrying a handful of dirt to chest height. With a flick of his wrist it made contact with Aza’s breastplate with all the force of a dropped washcloth.

“Oh, that was a good one!” Rai remarked with a laugh. It was a contagious laughter, the absurdity of it magnified by how harrowing the day was.

Aza swept the bits of dirt from his breastplate and leaned back on his hands. “So... not to be rude, but how the fuck are you still alive?”

“I just cast a regenerating spell on myself and run as fast as I can from danger, really. It’s worked thus far.”

Aza took a moment to imagine this- this man running like a bat out of hell, flowing with regen as fatal blows mended themselves instantly.

The sky, already dark, began to cloud over and obscure the moon and the stars. Low rumbles in the distance foretold that it would be a bit more than morning dew.

Rai-Nunn got to his feet and tugged Aza’s sleeve to lead him to the tent. Rai-Nunn couldn’t really see in the dark, but didn’t stop to consider that Aza might. Aza didn’t protest to being handled, it was for such a short distance anyway. The tent was cramped and smelled strongly of peppermint, tobacco, and patchouli.

Aza had worried it would smell like ten years of farts and sweat, so that was definitely a plus. Rai-Nunn placed his bag with the jaw bones carefully above the pillow. He seemed to mouth a brief prayer before removing the supplies on him. He opened a small leather box with perforations, removed a few larvae, and then put them in the bag with the frog. Upon closer inspection, it seemed to be a leather bag lined with wide leaves. The creature was settled into some moss until the maggots landed in front of it; it lunged lighting quick, eating each one with a popping sound.

Aza removed only the things that were way too uncomfortable to sleep in, leaving on things that most people would still consider too uncomfortable.

The tent was small and Rai-Nunn laid down on his side, courteously leaving some bedroll for Aza. They would need to cuddle up, but it was better than the alternative. Rai-Nunn was a much taller man than Aza by about 8 ilms, but he was willowy and narrow in the shoulders. He pulled off his traveling cloak and laid it over them like a blanket.

Aza realized it would be much more comfortable if he could place an arm around him. There was little room on either side otherwise.

Rai-Nunn, noticing Aza’s ceaseless shifting, spoke, “You can touch me. I won’t get any ideas.”  
Aza relaxed, untensing his shoulders to keep from taking up too much space. He dropped a heavy arm around the more slender man’s shoulders and settled in.

Rai-Nunn closed his eyes, purring. “Ah, the colors behind my eyelids are ferrying me into my dreams,” he said, starting to breathe more slowly. Aza wondered if the way he used magic was especially tiring for him, or perhaps he was just happy to have some company.

Aza, too, found himself slipping into sleep with strange ease. The rain began to patter on the outside of the tent, and the two men generated a decent amount of heat between them. The steady rhythm of the rain and the still far-off rumbling dragged the still blood-letted Aza towards sleep. Well. Until he remembered the leech still attached suddenly.

He sat up quickly, jostling Rai-Nunn awake. “What’s the matter?” He asked in a sleepy, breathy voice.

“Your leech-“

“Will drop off on its own and leave the tent.”

Oh. Gross. But. Okay. “I can’t just...?”

“Don’t try to remove it on your own, you’ll hurt it. And that would be cruel after the service it has done for you.”

Aza sighed, suddenly very aware of the leech.

“Is it gonna keep you up?” Rai-Nunn asked, already missing the most comfortable doze he’s had in years.

“Y...yeah,” it was a little shameful to admit, but there was no point in lying either.

Rai-Nunn sighed. He took up a bottle of something and uncorked it, pouring a drop on the creature. It groused, and seemed to loosen some. Rai-Nunn carefully placed his finger under the sucker, gently pushing the teeth back.

He then stuck the leech on his own exposed chest.

“Um—“ Aza didn’t know what to say to that, but he was glad to be rid of the leech.

Rai-Nunn took ahold of his shirt, peering into the opening left by the sin eater’s claws. 

“Looks alright enough.” He grabbed a bottle of something alcoholic smelling and splashed it on Aza’s belly. It stung, but Aza was sort of expecting that and braced himself.

“Okay. Okay?” the healer asked, gently tilting his head.

“Yeah, I’m good now. Thanks.” Aza laid back down and Rai-Nunn settled against his chest with a wiggle. Aza put his arm around him, listening to the other man murmur happily and feeling his heartbeat. He drifted into dreamless sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They make it back, somehow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again to KivaEmber for beta'ing! There's more violence in this chapter.

Aza woke finally to the heat and the sound of someone putzing about outside. Rai-Nunn was missing, and he put the obvious puzzle together. Aza poked his head out of the tent on his hands and knees, adjusting to the light blearily. He found his sunglasses and shielded his eyes again.

There was Rai-Nunn, who definitely had not killed him in his sleep and seemed only to be making breakfast. He looked over his shoulder and smiled warmly at his guest. “Breakfast will be ready in a bit. I had some oats and maple sugar, but I foraged some nuts and berries. I hope you’ll enjoy it.”

“Yeah, I’m not too picky.”

It sounded good, honestly. He was grateful for the hospitality this virtual stranger was giving him. That’s when he realized he had never introduced himself.

“Hey, um. My name is Aza,” he said, feeling a little dumb about it.

“What a curious name!”

“Huh?”

“It sounds like a girl’s name!” He laughed a little. “How did you end up with such a name?”

“It’s just what my parents called me,” he said, unwilling to start the morning by blowing his mind about alternate dimensions. He didn’t know how many frog licks he’d probably had this morning anyway.

Rai-Nunn felt a little bad about teasing him, but seemed to remember something. “Oh, would you like to see a magic trick?”

Aza, thinking just maybe he meant with cards or a coin, said yes. Like a fool.

“Here,” Rai-Nunn held his hand up, fist closed save for his index finger. He was not wearing his gloves, so Aza could see the dozens of little white scar lines on his fingers like rings. “Hold onto my finger.”

Oh no. In morbid fascination Aza found himself doing as he was told, though a voice inside him chided him for not stopping this madness.

Rai-Nunn, with his staff in his other hand, flicked his wrist, loosening the sheath on his knife. The same one that he had driven into his knee the night before. How appropriate, Aza thought, that he kept a knife inside his healing staff.

With entirely too-practiced precision and a disturbing lack of hesitation, Rai-Nunn brought the knife down on his own finger, separating the whole thing at the joint.  
Predictably, blood spurted onto Aza’s breastplate and clothes. Aza held the disembodied finger, looking at the deathly-pale set of digits.

“And.... don’t blink!”

He pressed his bleeding hole in his hand against the white finger and deftly casted a spell that Aza had never seen. White, bright smoke, like fog in the morning, emitted from his mouth. He blew it against his hand and it reattached. Just like magic. The scar there was just a little wider.

“Ta-dah!”

Aza was beginning to really understand why this hapless fool was pushed out of every settlement he had entered.

“Amazing!” Aza said with genuine delight. He’s so fucking weird, he loved it. He clapped, like that was a totally fine magic trick to do.

“Thank you, thank you!” Rai-Nunn said like a street performer. He laughed heartily, flexing his hand. That still must have hurt a lot. He seemed a little sweatier than he was a minute ago with a paleness to his complexion.

“I bet breakfast is ready,” Rai-Nunn said suddenly, turning to the small pot. He fished out a portion for Aza and supplied him with a sea shell as a spoon.

It was definitely tasty, to his surprise. The berries were sweet and a little tart, the nuts were nicely soft... and about five minutes in Aza began to feel a cramping in his stomach and his head spinning. Aza sucked in a breath and began to double over.

Rai-Nunn simply laid a hand on Aza’s shoulder and casted an esuna.

“Hey,” Aza said, color returning to his complexion as his nausea faded. “Is this poisonous?”

“Oh, very. But it tastes wonderful, doesn’t it? Keep eating and I’ll just cure the poison again in a bit. I meant to give you the first round of healing before the poison set in. I must have lost track of the time.”

Aza considered his options. Option one: eat the poisonous food and rely on this weird man to heal him again. Option two: refuse it and risk earning his ire.

But Aza was very hungry. His hands were shaking and he felt light-headed. He knew it took a while to regenerate blood. Also there was a real chance his mental faculties were affected by eating poisonous berries, because he found himself feeling oddly amenable to eating them again, despite knowing what they were. 

“Can you cast whatever you did more often?”

“Oh sure, it’s easy. I use it near constantly anyway.”

This man’s lifestyle was a trip.

“Oh, I've modified a spell... It should suit your needs,” Rai-Nunn said with a smile. He finished his oatmeal and took up his secret-knife staff. He closed his eyes for a couple seconds, allowing a pulse of blue aether to pass through Aza and linger. “It’s a regency spell for poisons. You won’t have any side effects.”

Aza stared into his bowl hard for a moment. He needed his strength, he supposed. He continued to eat the oatmeal, this time without the discomforts of the deadly toxin. He made a mental note not to kiss Exarch for a while though, in case he… accidentally poisoned him? Was that even a thing. Maybe.

With or without him, he still meant to go to the Crystarium. He finished his meal as Rai-Nunn packed up the modest camp. How did such a small man carry all of this?

And then he threw what looked like a sheet over the entire thing, bundling it up as it shrunk before their eyes. He tied the cantaloupe sized bundle to his staff and slung it over his shoulder like a runaway child pretending to be a hobo.

Aza had occasionally used such objects, but it was fascinating to watch another utilize it. They weren’t cheap or easy to make, that was for sure.

“Where did you get that?” Aza asked, again like a fool.

“Oh, a corpse of course!” Every question he asked was not rewarded, Aza found.

“Ah, how thrifty,” he said, keeping his tone neutral somehow.

Even a blind man wouldn’t get lost going to the Crystarium. The trees that grew there had a sweet scent and the aether radiating from the great radiant tower was magnetizing.

Aza enjoyed walking without all the pain, though he still limped a bit out of habit.

They made marvelous time, ending up at the gates just past noon. Lyna met them at the gate, surprised that Aza was walking so easily. It was an often talked about trait, honestly. Others worried for his health, but none voiced it outright. He would just receive anonymous gifts at his inn room of balms, salves, and soaking salts.

“Well, well! You like like you bested your mark, didn’t you?” Lyna said with a grin. “Who’s your friend?”

“That I did!” Aza said, puffing up a bit, hands on his hips. “Oh, and this is Rai-Nunn!”

Lyna drew back. “Rai-Nunn...Rai-Nunn? /The/ Rai-Nunn?”

Uh-oh.

Aza looked at Rai-Nunn with a look of bewilderment.

“Alright, alright… What have you heard?” Rai-Nunn asked, crossing his arms.

“You’re a known White Mage Cultist. Everywhere you go there are stories of attempted necromancy, poisonings, and outrageous and upsetting public displays.”

Ok, so about what Aza was expecting... He glanced at Rai-Nunn. The man wore the expression of an exasperated customer at a shop.

“...But was anyone hurt or um, killed permanently?” Aza asked.

Lyna stared him down and balked. “There’s been no reports, but still! It is considered suspicious criminal activity. His sort of cultist consorts with sin eaters, as well.”

“I guarantee you that he is not any sort of criminal! They definitely hate him almost as much as they hate me. And besides! He saved my life! He’s just a little weird, okay? ...and I thought all were welcome at the Crystarium.”

Lyna rolled her eyes. “If you were anyone else, know that I would not let this slide. Go clear it with the Exarch. I will meet with you later to hear his decision. But know that if he does not give Rai-Nunn clearance, I will have him exiled.”

“Thaaaaanks, Lyna!” Aza said in a sing song voice as he triumphantly marched Rai-Nunn through the gates. Fuck that noise about exile, he knew he could win the Exarch over.

Once they were out of earshot, Aza spoke up. “Word to the wise, Rai... maybe shelve your ‘magic tricks’ until people get to know you a little better. And don’t do that around kids.”

“Oh, kids are the ones who like it the most! It’s always the parents that object. But very well, I’ll conceal my gifts for now.”

“Also, maybe. And this is just a suggestion... maybe only lick your frog in private.” Though he was trying to speak quietly, the people standing inside the gate heard every word and stopped their conversations to eavesdrop.

“It’s just a frog...” Rai-Nunn said, which would be a true statement in nearly any other context.

“Yeah, but it’s the licking part. It’s, uh, a little unusual.”

Rai-Nunn sighed deeply. Society always had so many silly rules.

“So, we have to go see my friend, the Crystal Exarch, so you’re allowed to stay here.”

“Fair enough...”

Aza glanced at the satchel that he knew contained his brothers’ bones, though he waited until he led them to his room in the Pendants before asking about them. Hey, he stank and he wasn’t seeing the Exarch will the stench of spilled guts clinging to him, and, suspiciously torn armour... 

“So, Lyna mentioned necromancy…” he said when he closed his room’s door behind him, “Just sayin’, I’ve met a couple necromancers. It doesn’t turn out so good.”

Rai-Nunn huffed. “I knew you’d get all hung up on that. That was a long time ago. It’s why I joined the Order of the White to begin with... I thought I might bring my brothers back. But it’s been twenty-three years, and what my order masters have told me is that they would have been long weathered by the lifestream, knocked apart like glass in the roaring current.”

Rai-Nunn closed his eyes and bowed his head with a sigh. ”Hmm.. I’ve almost lived longer with them dead than not by now. I’d tried, of course, but there was nothing to bring back. If only I’d known now what I now know how to do when it happened.”

“So… If you don’t mind me asking. What happened?” Aza asked, swallowing hard. He had to concentrate and stuff down how he felt about his own sister.

“It was during a hunt. I stayed back that day, confident in their skills! But maybe that was just an excuse since there was a woman I wanted to dote on into late morning.” As he spoke, his voice began to sound far away and Aza started to feel the tell-tale signs.

“Oh Gods, here we go--” 

Aza was too busy reliving Rai-Nunn’s early afternoon of discovering his brothers’ carcases to notice that Rai was having a similar problem. 

Rai-Nunn’s head thrummed as he found himself in a building with architecture unlike anything he had ever seen. He saw the young boy, the young girl. He understood, he meant for her to gain her bearings on the ground, to escape. Not that.

They both came back from it, but Aza believed Rai to simply be holding his head in mourning.

Aza was at a loss for what to say. Maybe his brothers would have lived, maybe they all would have just died together. He stayed quiet. 

Rai-Nunn finally opened his eyes, blinking away the tears. He felt like someone had hooked him by the back of the skull and was now slowly reeling him in through icy waters. “I feel like a wandering shade without them.”

Aza looked at him with furrowed brows and clenched fists. “But you aren’t a shade, no matter what you’ve been made to believe. You’re capable of really helping others, you’re curious, you’re kind, and you’re honest.” Aza found himself parroting some things he had been told in therapy. What a strange thing, to be the normal one, the stable one up against another’s traumas..

Rai-Nunn almost hissed his laugh as it grew into a short, bitter bark as he wiped the new tears from his eyes. “Ah, yes. Of course.”

“Look I’m not the best at these sort of talks, but I’m not joking! Stay here, make friends...” Aza realized he had been gesturing wildly with his hands. Whatever. “I’m sorry your brothers are dead. I really am. But would they want you to just walk the planet trying to revive them while you torture yourself?”

Rai-Nunn seemed genuinely confused. “What do you mean? I have a great life. I’m never hungry... hardly ever bored. I get lonely.. But doesn’t everyone without a sibling?.”

Patience, Aza reminded himself. “Obviously you loved them, you know. If they were good brothers, they wouldn’t want you to feel this way. You’ve got to accept it.”

Rai-Nunn carefully plucked a bit of stale bread from the table, food left out from last night in expectation of Aza’s return, no doubt, and nibbled at it as he thought. “They were excellent brothers.” Rai-Nunn took up a bowl of some sort of broth, aggressively dipping it to soften the loaf. He then took a great big bite out of it, splattering his clothes with the soup and crumbs.

“...You ready to meet the Exarch? Or do you want a nap?”

Rai-Nunn gazed longingly at the bed. “I’d rather death, but I will accept a nap...”

Speaking of death, Aza remembered he came here to shower, “Hey, uh. There’s a washroom right through there, if you wanna go use it since we’ve been traveling for an awfully long time…”

Rai-Nunn did not catch the hint. “I don’t need to pee. Remember, I pissed an hour ago on that sign post.”

Aza gazed at the floor for a moment. “I’ll be direct, then. Please bathe. You stink.”

Rai-Nunn opened his mouth, held agape like a fish, then closed it. His bouts of feeling cooperative seemed entirely random and tied to fae-like whim.

“Very well. But you also smell, and there’s blood rotting on your clothes.”

“Some of it is yours,” Aza said stiffly. It was true. There was grime and monster residue, but the freshest stuff was from Rai-Nunn’s “magic trick”.

“Well, let’s just wash up together!”

Aza stared stonily past Rai-Nunn for a moment. He realigned his gaze as he spoke firmly. “Alright, but this is amongst friends. Not lovers. And I’ll warn you since you saved my life... If you make a grab for my cock I’ll punch your teeth in.”

“Hey... I know I seem dense, but...” Rai-Nunn trailed off, failing to find something to follow that with. “I’m not gonna fondle you without some consent, alright?”

Aza’s aggressive posture eased a fraction. “Just warning you, is all. Making some clear lines.”

Rai-Nunn perked up. “Well, then let’s wash up!”

Several minutes later the two men were still trying to make the water pouring over them run clear. There was more than one showerhead, though they were positioned next to one another. Rai-Nunn was amazed by the amount of dirt he’d collected in his fur.

“I swear I clean my tail,” he said, watching the black iron of Eulmore’s sandy beaches wash off of him. The bits clung to the shower floor, and Rai-Nunn was left kicking them into the drain.

It was a miracle that Rai-Nunn didn’t clog the drain with his copious shed fur. Aza owed that entirely to the Hrothgars’ presence in the city. Surely they wouldn’t stand for the humiliation of constantly clogged pipes.

As they bathed, they could not help but notice one another’s features. Though fairly youthful in the face, Rai-Nunn had several tells about his age. It probably owed to his diet, his stress, his magic use... and the cruel mistress that time always was and forever would be— But Aza noticed the soft, sagging skin around his joints and the way the creases in his skin ran deeper than his own. It made him look oddly delicate from behind.

Where youth might have padded him with the robustness of youth and testosterone, his age left him with thin limbs and jutting bones. By the math, he was supposedly 45, but he looked a little older in the nude.

Rai-Nunn shamelessly looked upon every scar and bulging muscle that Aza had. It made Aza a little self conscious certainly....

“Hey, anything else hurt?” The man asked, still gently exfoliating the grime from his skin.

Aza considered this for a moment. He was mostly okay, and though he understood the method, he was not super jazzed about getting stabbed again. Least of all in the spine. That could end very, very badly he felt. “Nothing remarkably bad, thanks.”

Besides, the healing for his leg made a big difference in his speed and energy. It seemed like something further up was still a little fucky, but overall it was far more tolerable.  
.  
They found themselves unexpectedly energized by washing, so they agreed that they should go see the Exarch sooner than later.

Aza, at least, had a couple changes of clothes in his Inn room. He did his usual wipe down on his armor, but it still smelled of metal, oil, and blood.

Rai-Nunn began casting a spell in the nude... on his clothing?

A mild, swirling wind passed up through the clothes, and the smell of body odor and blood dispersed, leaving just the mint, tobacco, and patchouli.

“What... was that?” Aza asked, though he already had an idea.

“Just a purifying spell,” he said with a shrug.

And then he redressed, his clothes looking just as they did the day before. His billowy shirt and sleeves were tattered a bit at the hems. He wore a doublet made of leather over it that cinched the shirt to his body. He, did not have underwear, and Aza tried to not notice that as he stepped into his thin leggings. Gods, he hadn’t noticed that they were a little see through before. He finally pulled on his thigh-high leather boots and strapped all his various packs on, then straightened his clothes. Thankfully it put his genitals mostly out of sight. He checked on his frog, then licked its back to between the eyes. The frog was clearly so used to this that all it did was flatten its fat body in response.

How in Hydaelyn was he gonna convince the Exarch to let him stay here?


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Second update of the day. I'm sitting on a stash of this but I don't wanna give it all up too fast.

At the guard post for the ocular, Lyna stood shoulder to shoulder with several others. Lyna spoke up as they approached.

“Know this, Rai-Nunn: we will be outside and we can and will kill you at a moment’s notice if you try anything funny with the Crystal Exarch.”

“What a warm welcome,” Aza said dryly. “I’ll be there, I can watch him. I really don’t think he means any harm, anyway.”

Lyna tilted her head down, leveling her gaze with Aza’s.

“And the Exarch can care for himself, too,” Aza added. After a lengthy five second stare down, she turned and entered the building with her men behind her.

They escorted the pair directly to the Ocular. Aza, however, decided to just bust the door in his rambunctious little way.

“Exarch! I had such a wild day. So I just had my guts torn out by a sin eater, but this guy put them all back in somehow and saved my life!”

The Exarch couldn’t help but stare agape. “Excuse me?!”

“He’s amazing! He’s the best healer I’ve ever met. His name is Rai-Nunn.”

The shock was apparent on his face. “Rai-Nunn, is it? We’ve met, do you remember?”

Rai-Nunn laughed, laying his head against his hand. “Now they you mention it, I do. I thought you were a hallucination back then.”

He turned to Aza. “Ten years ago now I had ventured out, investigating rumors of a cult that could control and manipulate the corrupted white aether. There I found the Order of the White, an order of reclusive cultists deep in the swamplands. However, they had no real common goals with me and we agreed to separate.”

Rai-Nunn nodded. “That’s right. And then sometime after good old Vauthry sent his lion to massacre us when he found out about us.”

“Wait, wait. Uh. What?” Aza asked, looking between them.

“Our hideaway and all the people in it were so rich with light aether, they always attracted the sin eaters. But those skilled in combat had no issue purifying them and taking them as our own. Well, that was all well and good until Vauthry caught on and came knocking at our door.. They rounded up everyone to turn them into meol.”

Aza looked at him with shock. “You know about the meol?”

“Yeah, he was shouting it at us as he had us bound, captured, or killed.”

The exarch chimed in with the elephant in the room. “I must know, how did you survive?”

“Oh. Um, so I have this spell that will raise me from the dead.”

The Exarch looked properly alarmed and intrigued. “I’ve heard rumors of such a thing, though I have not yet had the chance to witness it.

“It’s not too complicated… I just have to cast it before I die. So, I cast it and I just stabbed myself in the neck once I saw what was happening.”

The two continued to stare, rapt.

“It’s a re-raise. It takes about an hour for me to come back fully... and they had left by then. Had they stayed they would have alerted the Viis.”

The Exarch blinked at him and lowered his gaze. “I’m so sorry. That must have been terrible for you. I wish I could have convinced your people to come to the Crystarium.”

“It’s... well. Not alright. But it’s been ten years. I didn’t have to watch the worst of it, I think.”

“Didn’t some of your order mates think to do what you did?” Aza asked, anxiously moving his arms from crossed to in his pockets every minute or so as he shifted his weight.

Rai-Nunn shrugged. “Sure. We likely all cast it on ourselves. But I’m the only who also committed suicide directly after. A re-raise doesn’t protect someone from being ground into flour, after all.”

Ah, so even as far as the cultists went, Rai-Nunn was a bit different.

“What was that like?” Aza asked. “You entered the lifestream, right?”

Rai-Nunn shook his head. “No, I can’t draw from that. I was tethered inside of my body. I dropped face down so that when my heart started again, there would be blood in it. In the first hour of death, the blood merely settles... I’ve done it back down, but it is very uncomfortable. Feels like getting stabbed in the chest. Also, there were flies and I had stupidly left my eyes open.”

“Please do not elaborate,” Aza said. “But can you cast that on others?”

“Oh sure,” he replied, like Aza asked if he could pass the salt.

“So… Let’s get to the bottom of the rumors of criminal activity. Why have you been chased from every town that you’ve entered?.”

Aza and Rai-Nunn began talking at the same time. Rai-Nunn looked to Aza, deferring.  
“No offense, I’m super grateful to you, and everything. And I think you’re a delight. But you kinda really freak people out.” Aza turned to the Exarch, “I’m pretty sure he’s harmless. He means well, and though he did intentionally poison me, he also healed the poison. Uhm, does that make it sound worse or better?”

“Poisoned you?!” Gods, Aza was going to shave years off of his life.

“Oh come now, I wasn’t trying to poison you, per se. Just the berries I used for breakfast happened to be poisonous. I wouldn’t have used them if I couldn’t cure the poison.”

Ah, I get it, thought the Exarch. He’s just a little insane. He wondered briefly if he had always been this way or had become broken due to circumstance.

“But he needs your permission to stay, ‘cause of his reputation. Maybe ask Lyna to cool it.”

“I see... well, I am loathe to deny Aza’s requests for all that he has done for us. If Aza trusts you, we will trust you. You may stay in the inn, if you like.”

“That’s alright. I’ve got a tent.”

“Well, you have permission to set it up somewhere. Please put it up by the amaro roost.”

Rai-Nunn beamed and nodded enthusiastically. “Thank you, Crystal Exarch. You are gracious as you are beautiful.” And with a deep bow, he walked backwards out the door, fumbling with the latch, and stumbled into Lyna as he left.

“Aza...” the Exarch started in a cautious tone.

“Yeah, babe?”

“Is there anything, anything more at all that I should know about our newest resident?”

Aza’s eyes sparkled like he was hoping the Exarch would ask. “He carries his brothers’ jawbones with him. He also has a frog he likes to lick now and then, and it makes him hallucinate. Also he does this “magic trick” where he cuts off a finger and puts it back on!”

“Oh. good. Great. I suppose no town is truly complete without its deranged wanderer.”

“Oh yeah, and when I tried to pay him he asked for sex. I didn’t, obviously.”

“Oh?!” It’s like Aza was trying to actually make each statement worse than the last.

“Yeah. He wasn’t very persistent. It was probably a whim.”

A thought struck the Exarch. “Wait, you checked in yesterday, how long ago did you meet him?”

“Uh, last night, why?”

What a terrifying prospect.

“... And he’s my problem now. Very well, Aza.”

Aza gave the Exarch a wink and a kiss on the cheek as he turned to leave.

“I’ll see you tonight?” the Exarch called.

“Yeah, meet me at the Pendants for dinner! I’m gonna go get my bounty.” Aza waved with a flick of his wrist.

He decided to stop by and pay Rai-Nunn a visit on his way back, seeing if he’d found the right spot or bothered the locals yet. In the Exarch’s wisdom, Aza found him chatting happily with the Amalj’aa. His lifestyle, already foreign to them, was clearly not as shocking.

Aza rocked up to the trio, catching the ends of the conversation. “Snails with red shells in this region tend to be safe to eat, but the speckled ones almost always are poisonous...”

And the Amalj’aa simply nodded, one about to add to the conversation before the noticed Aza and turned.

“So he says he saved your life! Is this true?”

“Yep! My guts were totally out when he came and fixed me up.”

“Ah yes, I meant to tell you that they’re a very lovely hue. Nice and pink.”

The Amalj’aa turned to look at him curiously.

“I’m a doctor. That means your bowels are healthy. It’s a good thing. We just typically don’t see the intestines on a living person, is all. Mine are grayish.”

“How good to have a doctor practiced in swamplands practice here. The spagyrics do their best, but they don’t always know what to do about us.”

Aza was delighted. “Hey Rai-Nunn, lets go get something to eat. If you’re gonna stay here, I wanna make sure you have some gil, too...”

Rai-Nunn sighed. “Very well,” as he walked towards Aza he seemed more uneasy than before.

Aza didn’t point it out, but decided to just keep tabs on it. They made their way to the restaurant, and it was lively this time of day. When Aza showed his face, everyone who knew him waved, cheered, or raised their glasses to him.

A couple men quickly shifted from the best seats in the house, happy to do so from their faces. 

Rai-Nunn happily took one of the seats, and Aza figured why the hell not and sat too.

Instantly the barmaid came up, dropping off drinks courtesy of someone in the vicinity.

It could get dangerous, sometimes. Aza had to ask to only allow two or three drinks to be purchased for him after the incident. Everyone in the Crystarium was very polite to never mention it to him, but everyone knew.

Months ago he sat down and full steins, dropped off by other patrons, covered the entire surface of the table by the end of the night. Aza, not wanting to be rude, took a good drink out of all of the offered flagons. This, of course, seemed like a better idea with each successive time that he did it.

Three hours later, he had to be wrangled and wrestled from a loft in a barn where the Amaro were trying to sleep, but Aza had been stubbornly persistent in serenading them in a godawful, warbling screech until he blacked out.

Aza shook his head, coming back to the now as two tall glass steins of beer were set down in front of them. Rai-Nunn looked delighted. He took a sip, then pulled out what looked like crushed herbs from one of his many pouches, sprinkling the contents over the surface of the beer. He then picked it up and drank it down like he’d been rescued from the desert. It was an impressive fifteen second chug, ending with a satisfied sigh and the clatter of the glass on the table.

Aza stared, then the goblin that lived in his brain compelled him to push his own drink towards Rai-Nunn. Once again, Rai-Nunn took a pinch of something and sprinkled it in his drink.

“Sooo... What’s that?” Aza asked in a little sing-song voice. He wished Bluebird was here.

“Poison ivy,” he said, like that was in any way something anyone on the face of Norvrandt has ever done.

“...Whhhyyy?” Aza asked, unable to contain his smile.

“Oh it helps me sleep through the night when I drink. The itchiness in my mouth and throat begins to pulse in a soothing way. I think it regulates my breathing.”

Aza then watched him drink the second beer in the same manner.

“So... now that you’re here, what’s the plan?” Aza asked as the barmaid came back to take their orders. They opted for the night’s house special, neither of them picky enough to bother choosing.

“But about my plan...Well. I don’t have anything specific. That’s why I have my tent. I could get kicked out tonight and it would have only been stupid if me to get too comfortable.

Aza did feel a little bad. This guy was such a pariah. As he sat there, it became clear that all these strange things he did were just to comfort himself, to cope, and to try to take control of his situation.

It was familiar in a dark little way.

“Is that why you didn’t take the inn room?"

“...Yeah. People get mad when I make myself at home.”

Aza could easily imagine why. Another round of drinks were dropped off, and Rai-Nunn was quick to grab his.

“Don’t worry, I can hold my liquor,” Rai-Nunn said with a grin. “Haven’t vomited in years... speaking of, have you ever had Mord liquor?”

“Oh yes.” Aza was unable to contain a full body shudder at the memory.

“Isn’t it fantastic? It tastes like the moments before death,” Rai-Nunn said, and had the experience to say so. “I’ll have to go buy some...but I guess I’ll need some coin first.”

“Oh, right. Let me give you something,” Aza then took out a bulging clam clasped bag and set it on the table. “Count it later, when you’ve got privacy,” he said low and quiet.

Not that he suspected anyone here to be a thief... but it was enough gold pieces to make an ordinary person’s morals crumble.

“Thank you, Aza,” Rai-Nunn said warmly, tucking it directly into his doublet, making it look like he had some sort of tumor on his chest. “I’m...really grateful to you, you know. I can’t believe that you haven’t run away yet.”

Aza shrugged in response. “I’m not scared of you,” he didn’t say ‘anymore’, even if it was true. “You’re just a little different... and since the whole world’s gone to hell and back, people don’t have a lot of tolerance for that out of protective fear. But... you’ll be okay here.”

Rai-Nunn breathed out and nodded in a reassured sort of way.

“I do genuinely enjoy your company,” Aza said as he watched Rai-Nunn’s eyes follow a spider that was crawling on the table.

“That’s a rare spider,” he said before snatching it and tossing it into his mouth.

Aza startled, thinking he was gonna eat it. But no, he managed to do something just a little weirder. A couple seconds later, Rai-Nunn winced, then opened his mouth and drooled the spider back out.

It unhappily skittered away, coated as it was in spit. People definitely saw this. 

Thankfully, Rai-Nunn was quick to explain.

“Ahm jastht adding ith venom to my whybrary.”

“Excuse me?”

Rai-Nunn cleared his throat, then cast a spell with a demure flick of his staff.

“I said, I was just adding its venom to my library. My brain library.” Your memory, Rai? “The more impurities I taste, the better I am at rooting them out.”

Aza did not know enough about that to know if that was true, but Rai-Nunn seemed confident and knowledgeable. He fixed his leg, after all.

“I’ve only seen that spider in books... So... you know. Life is so uncertain. I can’t bear to not take risks. Doing nothing just begets more nothing.”

Aza could understand that.

“Have you ever tried to write a book?” Aza asked, head propped up on one hand. “It sounds like it might be good for you. You’re like, one of the most interesting people I’ve ever met.”

Rai-Nunn regarded Aza for a moment, almost staring him down with his brows drawn, trying to gauge if he was being made fun of. His facial features relaxed after a moment and he smiled.

“Oh I suppose I should... I think I’m the last of my order. It would be a shame if all of our knowledge and research were lost...”

Aza snapped his fingers, remembering something. “Urianger is going to visit. You should talk to him. He’s like, the keeper of all knowledge, y’know?”

“Hmm... The penalty for telling outsiders about the order IS death... but I’ll meet with your friend. And if my stories brought my old brothers out of the woodwork, well. It would be nice to see them.”

Aza gave him a quizzical look. “But you’ve already told me about the order, and the Exarch, too.”

Rai shrugged. “They’d have to work really hard to kill me. Wouldn’t be worth it. I’m sure they would be happy to see me anyway.”

Aza briefly pictured this guy sticking himself with ungodly healing, running away from being stabbed. He didn’t doubt that had happened.

Their food was set in front of them, and they both ate in silence for a few minutes. Their journey had been short, but had worked up a mighty hunger.

“What about for you?” Rai-Nunn finally asked. “What’s next for you? Wait, do you live here?”

“Oh, sorta. Um, the Exarch is one of my sorta-husbands.”

“And the other?” Rai asked.

“Oh you don’t know him. His name is Aymeric, though.”

“Sounds like you have a nice life,” Rai-Nunn said, resting his head on his hands. Well, minus the bit he saw of Aza’s past. Another drink came.

“It’s had its perks,” Aza replied. It was sort of fascinating, but it dawned on him that this weird fellow had no goddamn idea who he was. That was kind of nice, if it probably made everything else a little strange. The special privileges, the accommodations... but this guy seemed to function in his own little world. Did he even know why the skies changed? It was sort of nice to be a nobody to someone.

Rai-Nunn sipped this drink, seeming to just be enjoying the weather and Aza’s company now. Aza thought about what he had asked. “I’ve been told to rest, but I’m not very good at that. I’ll probably continue to hunt wanted marks and all. I have to figure out how t-” he almost spilled the beans about the other worlds. But. Would it hurt? Would it hurt if he told this man, of all men? He’s probably take it in stride. 

Aza cleared his throat. “I’m trying to figure out how to send my friends back home. I’m from a different world entirely. It’s similar to this, but very different, too.”

Rai-Nunn gazed at him for a moment, putting things together in his head. “Oh, that’s why that mansion looked so strange.”

Aza froze. “Mansion?”

“The one I saw in my vision of you, but as a boy. I’d never seen anything or anyone like that,” he gazed mildly at the scraps of food left on his plate.

Aza tried to fight the numbing feeling in the back of his head. He had the echo?! “What did you see in your vision?” Aza demanded, low and quiet.

Rai-Nunn regarded him for a moment. He was giving off some interesting vibes. Both menacing and fearful… Ashamed, but curious.

“I saw you escape somewhere terrible. I saw your sister. I’m so sorry,” he said, taking a long drink to try to wash the images clean. It didn’t work.

“You’re sorry?” Aza asked with a weird croak to his voice.

“Of course I am--”

“For her, or for me?” Aza gripped the table, looking around quickly to see if anyone was watching them. Of course people were watching them. He was the bloody Warrior of Darkness, and his table mate had put a spider in his mouth a few minutes ago. “We need to go,” Aza slapped some coins onto the table. Entirely too many, even for his usual overpayment. He took Rai-Nunn by the forearm, leading him back to the inn room. “Don’t say a word until I tell you to.”

He couldn’t be inconspicuous, but at least he could have his privacy about this.

Rai-Nunn had managed to snag his drink, now low-key stealing the glass from the restaurant. He tried to drink while Aza took him, but he found that to be difficult. Drinking and walking quickly was difficult on its own, but they had such different stride lengths. He was just getting beer all over the place.

Enough had spilled out by the time they took the stairs to the inn room that it stopped sloshing out and spilling, at least.

Aza saw them both inside, accidentally slamming the door. “You have the echo.”

“The what? Oh, right. The voice in my head mentioned that before.”

“That’s not a voice in your head,” astoundingly, “That’s Hydaelyn. You have the echo and you saw my past. Tell me what you saw.”

“I saw a child, actually, many children. All living in this weird, gaudy building. I saw children being taken into rooms. I saw… Someone that must have been you. Brought into a room. I saw you kill the man with you… And I saw you try to run with a little girl. I saw her die as well.” Rai-Nunn stared evenly at Aza.

Aza didn’t know what to say. “...Don’t tell anyone. Please.”

“I won’t,” Rai Nunn sighed. “I don’t think of you any differently. Well. That’s a lie. I know more about you, and so I think about you in a different way. But I don’t blame you. You were trying to get her out of danger.”

Aza closed his eyes, the image of his sister still there. It met with the one of Rai-Nunn’s mangled brothers. He didn’t have the strength to talk about his sister. Then again, he never had the strength to talk about her, “I don’t think you could have saved them, Rai. Your brothers. Whatever killed them… Wasn’t normal, not by a long shot.”

They sat in contemplative silence. Rai took a long drink from his half-full mug. He passed the mug to Aza, and Aza drank the rest.


	4. Chapter 4

Several hours later, Aza stumbled out of the inn room, leaving a sleeping Rai-Nunn behind. He made his way back to the restaurant and stood outside, waiting for the Exarch. The Exarch, at a distance, seemed glad to see him. As he drew closer, his expression grew more concerned.

“Aza, are you alright?” the Exarch came up close, placing steadying hands upon him.

“Yeah.. Yeah I’m jus’ great. Jus’ been doin’ a little drinkin’,” Aza offered a smile and held onto the Exarch’s biceps for support.

“Oh no. Should you be out? We can reschedule… The last time, all the morning flights were delayed because the amaro were so upset. Let’s just take you back, okay? The inn room isn’t far.”

Aza hiccuped and frowned. “Can I go to the Crystal Tower with you, instead?”

The Exarch found it hard to refuse him, even if they ended up walking arms around each other to guide Aza into not faceplanting. Drunk Aza was especially not used to the range of motion in his leg, and found himself teetering dangerously every so often. “Gods, Aza, don’t fall. You’ll definitely take me with you.”

“I’m fine, I’m fiiiine. I could do, uh, uh, a running flip. Right now.”

They were only now passing the Spagyrics. “Please, Aza, do not do a running flip.”

“Is it ‘cuz you don’t think I can do a running flip? I do running flips, uh, every day of my life.”

Oh boy.

“No, Aza, I believe you. I would just prefer you not try it.”

“What! Who doesn’t like flips!” Aza broke away from the Exarch and began jogging backwards.

The Exarch put his hands up by his head as he watched, unable to do anything about it, as Aza tossed himself into a backflip. And slowly lowered his hands, though still with an alarmed expression on his face as Aza did not break all of his teeth on the cobblestones. It was not a good looking flip, but he stuck the landing.

Aza took a deep bow, having to catch himself on all fours as he began to tilt over.

“Let’s get you into bed, hmm?” the Exarch came over to his side, taking a firmer hold of him this time. The guard had the wits to not ask, but he couldn’t wipe the look of disbelief on their face as the Exarch all but dragged Aza into the Crystal Tower. Aza slept fitfully as the Exarch read in bed and watched over him. He cast something to soothe him in his sleep, and it seemed to work for a while, at least. 

Morning came, cruelly, and without warning. 

Aza roused, completely confused. At least the signature architecture clued him in on where he might be. “Ugh. My fuckin’ head. Exarch?”

The man was dozing with a book open on his belly. Aza silently got out of bed, finding himself undressed. Huh. He walked around the room, finding bits and pieces of his strewn things. 

“Aza,” came the Exarch’s sleepy voice. “What happened to you last night?”

Oh, yeah. Yeah… “It's.. I wasn't expecting it. But Rai-Nunn’s got the echo, it turns out. We saw some of each other’s pasts. It was terrible, so… we drank. And we drank until we forgot about all of it, but I remembered we were getting dinner. And I think that’s where my memory cuts out.”

“Do you remember doing a backflip?”

Aza looked at the Exarch for a moment. “It wasn’t off a tower or a balcony or anything, was it? I mean, I feel fine--”

“No, no. It was just on the street. Wait, what? Is that something you’ve done now?”

“Yeah… Once in Ishgard. Didn’t go so well.”

Aza rubbed his head, sitting down on the bed, half dressed as he was. “I… Owe you an explanation, but I don’t want to talk about it.”

The Exarch felt a little bad for already knowing. He knew it wouldn’t help to reveal that, though. “You don’t have to talk about anything that you don’t want to talk about.”

Aza gave him a sad, if grateful, look and went to go find his pants. “Hey handsome, um, have you seen my trousers?”

“They’re by the bath,” he called from the bed. 

“Gods, why is everything so everywhere?” Aza came out of the bath at least covered.

“Because you threw it everywhere. You told me you were doing to, quote unquote, ‘Sex me ‘til dawn’, and then you fell asleep by the toilet.”

“... I’m so sorry.”

The Exarch held up a hand to stop him. “It’s fine,” he said, and meant it. But Gods did he look tired. 

“Hey… Uh. You go back to sleep. Let me go bring you breakfast as an apology.”

The Exarch gave him a tired smile, settling back into the duvet. Aza made his way down the elevator, navigating the halls with practiced ease. He came upon the kitchens, putting together a few things he found in the ice box and baking up a few fresh crumpets to tie it together. They were fabulous crumpets, too. Aymeric always told him so.

Back upstairs, Aza greeted the awake-but-barely Exarch with a serving tray. “Lovely, truly. Thank you, Aza. Won’t you have any?”

“Oh, I already ate the ones I fucked up. I’m fine.”

The Exarch smiled, sitting up to tuck into his breakfast. “So… What are you up to today?”

Aza loved the intimate, ordinary sort of way Exarch would speak to him now. “Hmm.. Urianger is coming down, so there’s a meeting with the scions today,” Aza said, just watching the Exarch… and then remembered. 

He folded his arms, his facial expression beginning to fall. “Uh oh. Uh. I’ll be back later. Don’t worry, everything is probably fine!” he yelled as he booked it out of the Exarch’s personal chambers. The guards and day-laborers all stopped in their tracks as he whizzed by.

Aza was enjoying how he was actually able to run, even if he was stupidly out of practice to do it. He touched down at the aetheryte and warped to the Pendants, making his way hastily up the stairs…

Oh Gods. There were so many components to what was going on that it took a moment to understand it all. There were the Scions as he knew them, all outside the open door of his inn room. There was an air of panicked energy that his echo clued him into, so something must have just happened. He peered down; the floor was slicked with blood, and as Aza came up the stairs, he grimaced to see that it was pooling from Rai-Nunn’s corpse.

“Aza!” Alphinaud was the first to see him, and rushed over. “Do you know this man?! We had just knocked on the door, and when we went to open it, he stabbed himself in the neck!”

Oh. Phew.

“He’s fine. Probably.”

“Aza, he is dead,” Alphinaud said, a tremor in his voice. “He is definitely not fine.”

“No, no. I know this guy. Uh. He’s probably fine. He does this.”

Thancred’s head snapped towards the two. “What? Just dies every now and then?”

“...From what I understand, yes.”

Y’shtola sucked in air and stepped over the man’s blood to enter the room. “Well, come on now, before we raise alarum. If it is fine, then we should deal with this before anyone sees us and panics.”

The others followed suit with Aza closing the door on the whole mess. “I can explain. But in an hour, he probably will be able to, too.”

Y’shtola and Urianger exchanged a conversation through incredulous glances.

“Who is this man?” Y’shtola asked, arms crossed, watching his blood creep across the floor.

“Uh. His name is Rai-Nunn. He’s a white mage, um, though sort of an unconventional one.”

“Oh, doth thou mean to name him a cultist?” Urianger said, figuring as much immediately. “He hath the aetherial signature of such.” Urianger was both disappointed and unsurprised when Aza didn’t react.

“Yeah. He’s a cultist. Um, but he’s a friend. He saved my life the other day and had nowhere to go, so I brought him here.”

Alisaie had her fingers pressed hard to her temples. “Can you please explain how he’s fine before I lose my mind?”

“Oh, uh. He has a revival spell, except it can bring someone back from death. It just takes a while.”

That seemed to shock most of the others in the room... save Urianger and Y’shtola.

“Oh yeah, and he has the echo.”

That at least shook a reaction out of the two of them. Meanwhile, Alphianud had to continuously step away from the puddle of blood edging out towards the center of the room. Aza sighed, grabbed a few towels from the bathroom, and stuck them under the door. Didn’t need that getting into the hallway and causing a scene.

“So… Should we clean the blood up, or is he going to need it?” Thancred asked, pressing his forehead into his hand. 

Ryne looked none too comfortable with all of this either, but was at least thankful he was fine. 

“Uhhh. I don’t know. Let’s just leave it in case.” Urianger and Y’shtola were still staring at Aza, and it began to really make him uncomfortable.”So… We can just… All take a seat at the table and have our meeting… And… Y’know, by the time we’re done he might be back up.”

No one took a seat. 

“Shouldn’t we move him?” Ryne asked carefully.

“Oh, no, no. He’s like that on purpose. Says it makes starting his heart more comfortable. Oh yeah, also, I think he can hear us. Said he just keeps his soul tethered to his body while he’s dead.”

“Where did you find him, Aza?” Alisaie asked, becoming less okay with the situation with each passing moment.

“Oh, just on the road. Fought a pretty notorious hunt by myself, then ran into him getting attacked by some sin eaters, so I was pretty worn down at the time but I was able to fight those things off. Well. After one of them tore my belly open, that is,” Aza laughed nervously. “You’ve really got me ‘spilling my guts’ here.”

No one laughed.

“Anyway. He healed me up no problem.” Aza was wondering how many times he was going to have to tell this story. Probably enough times to warp it into fable at this point.

Urianger looked between the maybe-corpse and Aza. Aza knew that look. “Don’t ask me anything, I seriously don’t know how it works. And if I’m honest, I’m not sure he does either.”

Uranger sighed, placing his forehead against a few splayed fingers. Always so dramatic.”What doth thee bethink we should do?” Urianger asked. “It soundeth much like thee have purpose behind telling us about him.”

“Oh yeah. He’d be super useful. I think you should offer him a place as a Scion.”

Everyone would be more surprised if they knew what the man was even like. “...Well. We were formed to protect and utilize those with the echo,” Y’shtola said carefully. “... We’ll take his application if he gets up from the floor.” She sounded very skeptical.

In the corner of his vision, Aza saw a frog hopping through the blood. “Uh oh!” He dove in, scooping the frog out of the blood. “You don’t wanna touch that stuff, lil’ buddy. There’s drugs in there… Well. I guess that’s just you, huh?”

The Scions were not happy about any of this.

When it came to be about that time, according to when Alisaie was sure he’d stabbed himself versus the hour after, they all found themselves waiting and staring.

Alphinaud frowned. “How much longer should we wait? Won’t rigor mortis set in soon?” He was not totally convinced that this was going to work, at all. In fact, he was sure that they were all just adding flavor to the trauma they all shared anyway. This would certainly crop up in his nightmares as a metaphor of the futility of progress in his dark days.

Aza folded his hands. He was very sure that this was going to be fine in the beginning, but he quickly grew worried. What if he cast the spell wrong? What if something just went wrong in general? Idly he held Rai-Nunn’s frog in his gloved hands. The creature was so docile that it merely fell asleep there.

Y’shtola cleared her throat. “Well. His soul hasn’t moved. So unless he’s just trapped himself in a dead bod--”

And suddenly the room became electrified with white aether. Rai-Nunn jolted and spasmed as his body was lifted from the floor. He floated just momentarily before he landed back on his feet. Well. His clothes were ruined, that was for sure. His eyes flitted open as color began to return to his cheeks. He pressed his face into his cupped hands and groaned. When he pulled them away, he startled, stepping back quickly and slipping in his own blood. He scrambled, not gaining any footing or traction as everyone sat and simply stared in disbelief. He handed the frog off to the person next to him, which unfortunately for Alphinaud, was Alphinaud.

“Rai, hey. Hey. Rai-Nunn. You’re getting blood on the walls. Slow down, I’ll help you up.” Aza walked over, crouched down, and held his arms out. Rai-Nunn took a hold of his forearms, and Aza simply stood, taking Rai up with him.

Rai’s shoes started to skid, and he grabbed hold of Aza around the torso to keep himself up. Aza placed his hands on Rai-Nunn’s back and slowly walked him out of the blood.

“Aza, there’s people. And they have matching tattoos. I think they’re going to hurt us,” Rai-Nunn said in a whisper that was audible to everyone.

“No, no.. It’s alright. These are my friends. Hey, do you regenerate your blood when you do that?”

“Not all at once,” he replied, still clinging to Aza.

“Because there is just, a lot of it. All over the floor.”

“Sorry, um.” Rai-Nunn held a hand out over the pool of blood on the floor. It began to vibrate, then the wet look of it disappeared as it began folding in on itself over and over. Eventually, there was just a cube of blood held in some invisible constraints.

“Probably… We want to put that into the bath. Sooner than later,” he said, still hanging onto Aza. Thancred hurried over, lifting the near-gallon of cubed blood and dropping it into the bath with a loud, dull thunk. Its walls broke down almost instantly, splashing the inside of the tub, and ontoThancred, with drying blood.

“Hm, that was disgusting,” Thancred said, stepping out from the bathroom. “Hey, so could you hear us from down there?”

“Oh, sure,” he replied, legs shaking like a newborn foal. “Sorry about all that, but I really wished you hadn’t startled me!”

“Uhhh… Sorry, Rai. I should have warned you that they would have probably all shown up. I forgot, since, reasons.”

It was good, at least, that Rai-Nunn did not seem the type to get mad about… Most things, actually. Kinda wondered what actually made this guy tick.

"It's alright," he said with a chuckle. He turned to Y'shtola, the one who claimed to process applications, or accept them at least. "So... I got up, am I in?"

Y'shtola frowned. She weighed the options. He was useful, but he was certainly mentally ill. But. Who wasn't in this day and age? "You may accompany us on select missions."

Rai clapped his hands together in glee, nearly falling. "Thank you!"


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> old friends and a day at the beach

It was early in the morning when Aza was summoned by the other Scions. They knocked on his door at the inn, knowing that he had retired there last night since the Exarch had been too busy doing... something. It’s ok, he always told them when he had something important to share.

When Aza opened the door, he was already alert, if not completely dressed yet.

“There’s been a report of a man in black robes washed ashore south of Eulmore,” Thancred said with a tense expression on his face.

Aza’s mind went blank for a moment. “... A dead man?”

“A live one, though just barely. The person who found him was just passing through and couldn’t stay.”

“Sorry, are you implying that this is—“

“They alerted us because they confused him for our traveling companion.”

Aza dressed quicker than he thinks he ever had. He zipped over to the amaro keep and jogged to Rai-Nunn’s little camp. The smell of egg-lemon soup wafted from the cook pot that Rai-Nunn was dutifully stirring. 

“Aza! You’ve come for breakfast,” he said cheerily.

“I wish. There’s an emergency, please come with me,” Aza said.

“... If I stop stirring the soup the egg will curdle.”

“Rai!” Aza said with enough force to knock him off his bullshit.

“Right- right. Um... he dipped two mugs into the pot. “Okay, I’m ready.”

Aza spotted Rai’s staff leaning against his tent and nabbed it. “Okay? Okay. Let’s go.”

Rai must have been using magic on the soup for it to not have spilled absolutely everywhere as they bolted for the aetheryte, ported to Eulmore, and mounted a couple Amaro to get to the beach. 

Aza nearly threw himself out of the saddle as he raced towards the familiar body. He drew his blade from his back with a loud /shwing/... and started to gingerly poke the body. Rai attempted to get out of his saddle one handed, having managed to consume one mugful of his soup, but still held the other. 

Rai steppes directly up to the prodded near-corpse and squatted down to take his pulse. The man, still facedown, grabbed Rai’s wrist with an angry groan. He pulled himself into a sitting position as Aza’s jaw dropped.

“Hades?!”

The man turned his head towards Aza, looking exactly as bad as someone who had been thrashed in battle and then dragged ashore by the tempest.

“How! How?! You got auracited! And shattered!”

Hades groaned, dragging a hand down his face. “You think I know? This is just as much of a surprise to me.”

Hades glanced at Rai who was trying to hand him a mug of soup. “I don’t recognize him. Who’s this one?” Hates asked dully, not taking the mug.

“His name is Rai-Nunn. He’s a healer. Uh.”

Hades turned back to Aza with an impish look on his face. “Did you find me?”

“No, I just got a report—“

“And the first thing you did was show up here and bring a healer... how sweet.”

“For /me/, not for /you/, bastard.” Though healing him wasn’t off the table either depending on the circumstance, he supposed.

“You gonna take this soup or what?” said Rai.

Hades peered at it, assessed himself and gingerly took it. He sniffed it.

“Hey, that’s not poisoned is it, Rai?”

Rai furrowed his brows. “No... no. I couldn’t get any fresh plants this week. I’ve been too busy at the Spa-gyrations.”

“Spagyrics,” Aza corrected quietly.

“Spa...jeer...ricks.” 

“Yeah.”

“I’m sorry, what?” Hades said, starting to feel impatient even with nowhere to go.

“The soup is safe,” Rai said confidently.

Hades stared at him for a few seconds before casting a spell on the soup. He took a sip and shrugged. “So this is your grand healer? A mediocre chef?”

“It’s only mediocre cuz I had to stop stirring!”

“Look I’m just still trying to deal with you existing, okay? Ugh, I guess I should take you captive, huh.”

“You should, shouldn’t you,” Hades said, sipping the soup.

“But you could just like.... shadow walk away.”

“I could,” Hades said.

“So should I heal him or not?” Rai asked, slipping his staff out from Aza’s belt.

Aza stared hard at Hades for a moment. “Um, sure.”

“Anything hurt, specifically?” 

Hades nodded and snapped his fingers. Nothing happened. He furrowed his brows and tried again, not cleanly sending it into the aether, but desynthesizing his clothes into his lap. The three of them looked at the lump of ore, the bundle of yarn, a glossy red stone, and a crow feather.

“Why’s there a crow feather?” Aza asked before glancing up and asking, “HOLY SHIT HOW ARE YOU ALIVE?!”

“Oh, God,” Hades almost reached in to touch the red soup that was the hole in his chest. 

Rai quickly twisted open his staff to slide out the blade, and before Hades could react or Aza could warn, he shoved it hilt deep into his ribs and casted a healing spell so old, so arcane, and so taxing on the aether that the sand turned to glass, the plants withered, and the vacuum of the air being destroyed created a loud boom.

Hades made a sound like duck being run through a press as his organs reformed, his sinew reconnected, and his skin closed up. The scar was pretty terrible, but Rai would tell you that he was a healer, it wasn’t magic.

Rai withdrew the knife, and that healed, too. 

“Where did you /find/ him, Aza?” Hades asked, touching the healed scar.

“Um, outside,” Aza said like he’d been caught with a salamander in his hands.

“Used a lot of aether to heal your friend,” Rai-Nunn said curiously.

“He not my-“ Aza stopped his sentence because... well. It was complicated, right? They were enemies, but it’s not like he was Zenos. Even if Zenos was his fault. “He’s not my friend,” Aza reaffirmed.

Hades glanced sideways and sighed. He gathered his desynthesized things and snapped— making the robe again. 

“What’s the matter with you?” Aza asked, placing his hands on his hips.

“Nothing,” Hades lied. He stood and dusted the sand from his clothes. 

Aza stepped back and reassumed his fighting stance.

“Oh, stop. You won. I’m not going to fight you. I don’t think I /can/, anyway. Something’s wrong with me.”

“Besides the fact that you’re existing and you shouldn’t,” Aza supplies, lowering his blade slowly.

“Yeah.”

“Well. Let’s tie him up,” Aza said to Rai.

“That’s not necessary, I’ll just go with you—“

But Rai has already dug out the rope, so Hades sighed, rolled his eyes and put his wrists out to be bound. Rai ties his wrists together in a decent little knot. Hades could just desynthesize it, but he figured that this is just insult and punishment.

“So... Back to the Crystarium?” Rai asks.

“Yeah... but we’ll have to take an airship. And we’ll have to walk back.”

“I can’t get on the amaro?” Hades asked dully. 

“How are you supposed to hold on with tied wrists? C’mon, let’s get walking,” Aza said with a tug of the rope.

Hades didn’t bother to suppress his sigh of irritation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi this is about Hades now


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hades gets his sentence

Aza couldn’t say that he was unsurprised by Hades coming with them cooperatively. Not quietly, of course. The man seemed incapable of switching off.

“So.... He’s a Scion, right? He seems special,” Rai said as if Hades weren’t just trailing behind by the rope as they disembarked from the airship. “White hair and all that,” he said.

“No, he’s.... not actually one of us,” Aza said, though he thought Rai really should have picked that little fact up from how they were treating Hades.

“I’m an ancient being that apparently the great Warrior of Darkness can’t seem to kill,” Hades said with a wry laugh. 

“His name is Hades,” Aza said. “He’s like, an ancient council member or whatever.”

Hades frowned. All his mystery had been shred, after all. How frustrating.

“So... what?” Rai looked at Aza with wide, owlish eyes.

“Sooo, he tried to cause another calamity here to kill us all. That business with the eternal day...? Ringing any bells, Rai?” Aza looked at Rai as Rai scrunched his brows.

Rai-Nunn scratched at the scruff on his cheek. “Yeah that sounds pretty bad I guess.”

“Where did you learn your magic?” Hades asked, chewing his lip.

Aza peered over his shoulder. “You know something about it?”

“In a manner. It’s entirely too powerful for a mortal to be wielding... You saw what he did to the area around us,” Hades carried a quiet note. “I’m surprised that didn’t kill you. You were able to channel quite a large amount of aether...”

“Maybe it’s ‘cause I have the echo?” Rai replied, holding the railing as they made their way down towards the Crystarium. 

“You. /You/ have the echo. Damn it, where were you when I could have used you?” Hades made an aggravated noise and pulled on his bindings in irritation.

Once inside the Ocular, they were greeted by an array of gasps and exclamations.

“Before you all ask: I don’t know. Maybe I’m too powerful, maybe your auracite was imperfect.”

“Maybe someone else figured out how to manipulate time,” the Exarch said, crossing his arms.

“That’s an interesting theory,” Hades said.

“So, any reason we shouldn’t just kill you right now?” Thancred asked with narrowed eyes.

“Hmm, besides the fact that it won’t stick? You if all people should know that well enough,” Hades said with a shrug.

“We won’t have the resources to make more auracite for quite some time,” Urianger said. That admission surprised everyone. Why tip his hand like that?

“So you figure I’m harmless?” Hades asked with a bark of a laugh.

“Aye, why else wouldst thou tolerate the indignity of those bonds?” 

Hades looked at his hands, flexed his fingers, and popped the rope into some grass and crystal shards. He rubbed his wrists and sighed. 

“I pose no threat currently, it’s true. So, instead, I ask for amnesty. Allow me to live peacefully and I’ll stay out of your way,” Hades said.

“The fucking balls on this guy!” Thancred said, nearly shouting.

“Or else you’ll have to keep me in a jail cell for... forever, maybe. And you can’t hold me,” Hades crossed his arms. “Unless you’re prepared to do something unspeakably cruel to me.”

The Exarch frowned. “Are you still tempered by Zodiark?”

“Hmm. No, it seems like our little hero sucked all the darkness out of this reflection,” Hades sighed. He’d never be found out here. Well, not until they caused a rejoining everywhere else and went to go see what the hell was up with the first.

Or more likely, they’d kick Elidibus’ ass and it would all be over. Wine, Hades decided that he needed a lot of wine.

No one looked happy about this, but they all peered over at the Exarch for a final ruling. “Fine. But you are to stay within the city itself. And you are to commit no crimes and no violence. Also, I sentence you to write at the library daily and review materials for accuracy.”

Hades raised his eyebrows. Clever man, that was actually a good use for him. “Fine, but I want a stipend.”

Thancred swiveled his head so fast at Hades from the Exarch he almost cricked it. “What, you don’t have any money? Haven’t you been here for at least a hundred years?!”

“... It’s all at the bottom of the ocean, and I can’t dematerialize like I used to.”

Everyone looked at Aza.

“Really? Just give him a bottle of wine and a meal voucher. I have way more important shit to do,” he groused.

“... Very well. If you want any money you’ll just have to find ways to earn it,” the Exarch said.

“Doing what, exactly?” Hades asked incredulously.

“I hear they’re hiring dancers at the beehive,” Alphinaud said, voice colder than ice.

“I have to stay /inside/ the Crystarium, boy,” Hades said with a smirk. 

“If you wish to seek employment as a dancer, I will sign off on it,” the Exarch replied.

“You’re ancient, you’ve gotta be able to dance, right?” Aza asked, suddenly interested.

“Yes, but not like a monkey for the enjoyment of a bunch of malformed little men,” he sneered.

“New ruling, you’re not allowed to be a bastard about our status as shattered souls,” Aza said. “If you’re going to live peaceably, you can’t go around thinking you’re so much better than us. Besides, you lost to me, so you aren’t.”

Hades squinted at Aza. Fair enough. He sighed. Even if he wasn’t tempered, old habits died hard. “Very well, hero. And lodgings?”

They spoke simultaneously. 

Thancred started, “Sleep in the gutter.”

Rai said, “You can stay with me.”

Y’shtola silently prayed that no one would fuck this up, because she wanted to hear about Hades sleeping in the crazy man’s tent.

“See? A bit of courtesy from, uh—“

“Rai-Nunn,” He chirped.

“From Rai-Nunn! Thank you. I’ll be staying with the healer, then. Let’s go, hmm?”

Rai nodded, and led him out. Once the door closed behind them, there was a chorus of released held laughter and breaths.

“Oh my god, oh my god,” Alisaie said, doubled over. “Thancred, you’re the quietest, go follow them.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's the chapter with sex in it

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you, Kiva, as always, for so generously lending ideas.

Ah. Of course.

Hades stood in front of the witch doctor’s tent just 50 yalms from the stables. It had all of the ambiance of homelessness and all the smells of a farm! Great.

“There’s enough space for two if we both lay on our sides,” he said.

“I have a better idea,” Hades said. “But we’ll need to invite some people.”

“Oh I know a few...”

“Not Aza.”

“... I know one person.”

Thancred had arrived just minutes after they had left and was disappointed, but not surprised to see that Rai and Hades had moved on. He couldn't pick up any sort of trail, either, and that tent had so many red herring style clues. Dammit! Where did they go...

“Lotus Eater, this is Hades. Hades, Lotus.”

“I simply must know where you met her,” he said, sprawled on Aza’s sofa wearing only a bathrobe. His legs were not as closed as they should have been to prevent someone seeing a certain something.

“I sold her drugs yesterday,” Rai said as he rubbed at his nose.

“Fantastic.”

“Do you know any people, Lotus Eater?”

She gave a thoughtful look as she crossed her arms. “Oh, some.”

Hades leaned back into the pillows as he pulled one leg up to give the woman between them more room. She needed it, as tall and muscular as she was. He cast his eyes across the room to watch a pair of Mystel men kissing and tugging at each others’ cocks. He looked to his immediate right as he heard a soft gasp. Rai-Nunn was laid on his side and a Drahn with a strap on held onto his leg as they pressed into him. It really was a who’s who of the people with the loosest morals in the Crystarium.

Hades closed his eyes, letting the sensations take him. He was a little drunk, though comfortably so. He placed a hand on the head of the woman blowing him. Lotus, it was, right? She was doing a marvelous job with his balls now in her mouth and one of her fingers inside him just slightly—

“Oh what the FUCK,” Aza said as he opened the door to his room.

That startled Lotus, and she turned he head towards the commotion, giving Aza a full view of Hades’ cock, balls, taint, and more!

Hades opened his eyes slowly, expecting this around now. “Welcome, grab a seat,” he said, gesturing to one of the hard Mystel men.

“Everyone, out! Out, out, out!!” The combination of this tiny man still exuding an absolutely terrifying aura did encourage most of the participants to find their clothes and put them on, shuffling out with complaints or blue balls and messy underclothes. These were people used to being kicked out of places. Lotus pulled her finger out of Hades, pulled on Hades’ underwear, and walked out of the room tits out.

Aza watched her incredulously as she closed the doors behind herself muttering “spoilsport”.

“Hades!” Aza yelled, hands on his hips. 

“Looks like a spot opened up,” he said, gesturing to his cock.

Aza practically ripped the glass of water from the table, throwing the contents at Hades. Aza just snarled and began to growl, his posture bristling.

Quietly, Rai-Nunn looked for his clothes, trying not to draw Aza’s attention nor ire.

Hades wiped the water from his face, flicking his hand nonchalantly. “Oooh, hot. Really giving off some feral vibes...”

“I’m going to choke you.”

“I didn’t know you were into breathplay, Aza--”  
That was the moment when Aza launched himself at Hades.

“You’re a brute, you know that?” Hades said with a pout and a black eye. He’d taken several minutes of decidedly unsexy punishment from Aza. He glanced around… Rai hadn’t left with the others. “...Where’s Rai?”

Oh yeah, where was Rai? Speaking his name had made the couch shift, so Aza walked over and lifted it up with one hand. “You’re not in trouble. I know you’re incapable of making good choices. Come out and put on your tights.”

Rai scurried out like the roach that he was, finding his tights and pulling them on. He didn’t find all of his own clothing… It must have been taken in the scramble. He frowned. That meant someone had his frog.

As Hades and Aza bickered, Rai looked around the room. Yep, definitely no frog. Which meant someone had all of his drugs, too! But more importantly, his frog!

“Guys! Someone has my frog!” he said, interrupting.

“Oh no, your frog,” Aza said with genuine concern.

Hades closed his eyes and lifted his hands off his thighs, turning them up into a shrug. “I’m sure they’ll return it?”

“But he’ll miss a meal, or they’ll try to turn him loose! Come on! You, too, Hades!”

Hades looked at what clothes were available on the floor. Well. There was a pair of women’s panties, a bra, actually, all of Lotus’ clothing was there. He put it on, for lack of anything else. This no-creation-magic business was bullshit, but he’d solve it later. At least this took the heat off of him.

The three of them hustled out.

“So, who were those people?” Aza asked, trying not to think of all the strangers’ butt sweat on his bedding.

“I don’t know. Some of Lotus Eater’s friends,” Rai said. “But I can probably find Lotus.”


	8. Chapter 8

Rai-Nunn led them up to the top of the stairs beneath the starry sky where new shop stalls had emerged since the revitalization efforts. More workers had meant a higher demand for convenience, even within a city as small as the Crystarium. The pendants valued their workers, but less how strongly of sweat they smelled by the end of the day. And the laborers preferred to walk as little as possible with as blistered as their feet were most days.

Currently there were three shop stalls living in harmony: a seller for distilled liquors from Eulmore, a grilled meats and seafood stall, and a baker. Little did they know, and without the words they had, that they would become an Izakaya in several years from now. But for now, they simply worked in tandem late into the night until all the laborers went home tired or drunk.

Even being the rowdy lot they were, it wasn’t usually like this. Then again, they didn’t usually have a topless galjent woman absolutely annihilating everyone at arm wrestling and tossing jeers into the crowd. The bet was simple: they would ante up a drink and a garment. Lotus Eater had currently accrued three drinks and three garments, none that she could fit on her frame. 

“Bah! Enough weaklings!” Lotus roared at the crowd. As a Galjent gent approached, Aza cut him off. 

“Lotus, is it?” he said, easily not caring that she was bare chested. She didn’t look weak, by any means, but he wondered if the average man became distracted once he caught a good look at her in the lamp light. “We’re looking for someone who was just at the… party.”

“Oh look! It’s the Warrior of Darkness! You want answers, you have to win, first! Let’s have a go, eh? The wager is simple. A drink and a garment.”

“...Very well. I’ll go get a--” before he could finish his sentence, a member of the audience supplied a drink. “Well. There we are.” Aza placed his elbow on the table and blew air out of his nose in a resolute huff.

Aza was almost surprised by the strength of her grip, even with the enormity of her hand in comparison to his. She counted down, the crowd went silent, and both of their arms flexed and strained against one another.

“Is it gonna be a draw?” Rai mused aloud.

“If we need a tie-breaker, it’ll be a contest of oral job skills,” Lotus said very seriously. 

Which forced Aza to think about how he _had_ seen Hades’ dick no less than twenty minutes ago. And this is the woman who was sucking him off to begin with. He grimaced, imagining sucking off Hades. He faltered, and Lotus slammed his hand on the table.

“Fuck,” Aza exclaimed.

Aza shook out his hand before pushing the drink over.

“And a garment, boy,” she said. 

Aza stood and undid the clasps for his boots, which made the crowd holler in excitement. And then he put his sweaty fucking socks on the table, which made the crowd boo. Aza shrugged as he shrunk back into the crowd. No one could say he didn't try, at least.

Hades rolled his eyes before he approached, finally illuminated. “Drink,” he said commandingly, holding out a hand. Someone placed a drink in his hand. “And a glass of wine,” he amended. After a shuffling there was a glass of wine placed into his other hand. Hades sat, crossing his legs.

“I believe I have what you’re looking for,” he said, very smoothly for a man head-to-toe in his one-night-stand’s galjent garments.

“Aye you do!” she said, reaching for her bra that was currently poking out of his sleeve.

Hades wagged his finger and tutted as he recoiled his arm. “You know the rules… You want it, you have to wrestle for it,” he said.

“How hard could it be? Let’s go!” She placed her arm heavily upon the table and held her hand nearly into a claw. Hades took it daintily with a look of disdain on his face.

“And… go.”

Hades didn’t even try, making her slam her own knuckles on the table with a hiss and a curse.

“Oh… You won. Here you are,” Hades said, pushing the glass across the table. He pulled his (her?) shirt off, flinging it across the table. Hades was far from his peak condition as a new soldier. He’d grown soft around the middle and his muscles had slackened with age… Though he commanded no less amount of sex appeal, he’d argue (and many would agree).

She pulled on her shirt, Hades placed the brassiere in his lap, and he placed his other arm on the table. 

“I want my trousers next,” she said with narrowing eyes.

“And I want to know the names of everyone at the party. Funny. We both want things,” he said before taking a long drink of wine. “Let’s just trade. I’ll take… the disgusting, sweat soaked clothes on the table, and I’ll give you your disgusting, sweat soaked clothing.”

She pulled her arm back slowly to place her arms akimbo and considered. “Fine. I’m getting cold anyhow,” she said as she stood. Hades shucked the rest of it, sans underwear, and Lotus put it back on. She took the four drinks up in a sweep of her arm, grinning down at Hades. He had a lot of confidence for a man wearing only already-worn panties in public. Especially it being _her_ panties.

“Come with me.”


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for looking it over and giving me ideas, kiva!!!

“Hades, please. Please put some clothes on,” Aza said miserably, trying not to look at his ass as he walked ahead. 

“I lost them all fair and square,” he said, still holding the glass of wine from earlier. Had he paid for that? No, he couldn’t have...

Rai unbelted his overcoat, offering it to Hades wordlessly. Hades put it on. He felt he’d lost all dignity, but he could still get chilly. To Aza’s chagrin, the coat did not cover his ass. 

“Hey, why are you still wearing Lotus’ thong?” Aza asked, feeling his life drain off.

“And go entirely nude in public? I’m not an animal.”

“What about bathhouses?” Rai asked. 

“Excluding bathhouses. I brought bathhouses to you savages, did you know that? You all kept getting fleas and dying by twenty-five. It was disgusting,” Hades raised a hand in emphasis, then recoiled it as if he were reliving his own disgust.

“Oh bullshit, Hades. There’s no way we all died at twenty-five. We’d be extinct,” Aza exclaimed.

“Twenty-five, forty-five... the difference is barely worth mentioning. ‘Tis like scraping tin off a coin to make precise change.”

“Yeah, yeah, you’re so immortal, we get it,” Aza said, stepping more heavily than necessary.

“Wot? Are you saying this bloke’s immortal?” Lotus asked, finally tuning into the conversation.

“Conditionally, like a lobster,” Hades said without explanation. Because fuck these people.

Aza grabbed the back of Hades’ thong and rooted himself in place. Hades had no choice but to stop dead for the reach of the thong’s stretch.

“I am so sick, and tired, of the obfuscation and bullshit. What does conditionally immortal even MEAN?”

Hades gasped despite himself. Rai-Nunn blushed.

Hades regained his composure, rocking back to reduce the tension of the cloth. “We ancients do die on our own. Once we feel we have fulfilled our purpose we pass peacefully.”

“Lobster is really good,” Rai said, half listening. “One of the tastier bugs.”

Aza felt a rush of anger and pulled the thong back hard, right before it would break, and lets it snap against Hades’ tailbone.

“Oh, Aza~,” Hades crooned, peeking over his shoulder. Unaffected except for the pink mark. Twelve damn his composure. “I always knew you’d give in eventually. Would you like to finish blowing me?”

Aza saw red, then black as his muscles flexed and his mind hazed. Fray whispered something to him but he misses it. He launched at Hades for the second time today, knocking him to the ground as he opened his mouth to bite down on his jugular.

“You won’t be able to kill me, and I’ll just possess a new body,” Hades whispered into Aza’s ear. “Also, your shin is on my cock. Are you trying to excite me?”

Aza stilled his fangs an inch from closing in on his neck. He got up off of Hades and growled at nothing, blowing off steam.

Hades got up and readjusted his clothing out of wardrobe malfunction territory.

“Are you boys done? We’re here,” Lotus said, pointing down the alley.

Past the garbage collection sites were a couple doors that looked like they opened into kitchens or workshops. The light was low, and the only indication that they weren’t breaking into someone’s home was a little placard on the door.

“Madam Sapphire’s House of Ill Repute,” Aza read slowly. “Is this a fucking brothel?”

“Ayup,” Lotus said as she pressed on the door latch with her thumb. The door’s bell chimed and the hinges squeaked open into a very saucy atmosphere. Even Aza, in his discomfort, had to admit that it was very well decorated.

Aza took an even, calming breath as the Madam entered the main foyer. “It is after-hours now. We can still see you, but there’s a fee to wake them up.” 

Her gaze fell onto Hades, dressed sluttier than he had in centuries. Empires near the equators tended to favor skimpier clothing to prevent the locals from dying of heat stroke. He knew he looked ridiculous, but he was too drunk and beaten to care right then.

“Unless... you’re applying for work?” she asked with a raised eyebrow. “You’re a little older than our typical applicant.”

Aza’s energy was so nervous and flighty that everyone could feel it.

“Oh, no, no. I believe one for your boy whores has something of mine.”

“Boy,” Aza repeated with a growl.

“Just a turn of phrase, there are no children here,” Hades said with a sad sideways glance that chilled Aza. What did Hades know? Everything, probably.

“We’re just here for Rose,” Lotus chimed in. “I’m his friend, I think he has this man’s coat.”

“And my frog,” Rai added.

The Madam crossed her arms. “You wish to see my whores, you have to pay.”

Aza groaned and grimaced, producing the necessary coinage for this. Really, he just wanted this day to end now. As amusing as it was before, whorehouses always dampened his mood.

“Go on. One at a time, unless you pay a double fee...”

They looked at one another. Rai might get distracted and just fuck and forget what they were there for. Hades might use this as an opportunity to escape or likewise make them wait on him while he fucked. Lotus had absolutely no loyalty to this cause. 

Aza stepped up. “Alright, I’ll be back soon,” he said, looking more tired by the minute.

“You paid the hour, no need to rush it,” the Madam said.

Aza let out a long, suffering breath as he walked down the hall. He knocked gently on the door, and a drowsy voice bade him to enter.

Aza entered, feeling nervous despite the fact that this was the least dangerous thing he’d done that day. The room wasn’t too big, it was mostly just enough room for a bed, a dresser, and a nightstand. A door off to the side probably went to a restroom.

“Sorry to wake you, ah...” Aza looked around, trying to find the missing items. He wasn’t poor by any means, but he wasn’t trying to blow all his money just interviewing prostitutes. He was so swept up retrieving Rai’s frog... and why shouldn’t he? He’d done more dangerous and hassling things for less.

“It’s you, Warrior of Darkness. This must be only my second time seeing you up close. This must be a dream come true, too!”

“Oh, hey. Don’t get the wrong idea. Definitely not here to get laid, I just think you might have something of my friends’.”

“Oh, maybe. I tend to have sticky fingers,” he said with a laugh.

At least he was honest, Aza thought. “So, uh, any frogs?”

Rose rubbed the stubble on his chin as he thought for a moment. He swung his legs over the bed and leaned forward to open the armoire. He picked through a few different costumes, ones that he was honestly envious of, until the man untangled a belt of pouches. 

“Oh yeah, thought it might have money in it but it didn’t. Shook it and didn’t hear a single jingle.”

Oh no, he shook the frog. “Can I just have it back then? You can go back to sleep. I paid for an hour either way, so....”

The other man chuckled. “Sure, sounds like a good deal to me. Oh, one thing—“ 

Aza stopped as he was about to leave, making a slightly worried face as the man approached. “Flex your arm, if you would. I heard your biceps are absolutely huge!”

Aza released a breath and chuckled. That he could do. He flexed, the other man squealed with delight, and reached out to feel it. “Incredible!”

Aza laughed and dropped the flex. “Well, I should be going.” And out of the corner of his eye saw part of Hades’ emperor get up. He heavily debated pretending he hadn’t seen it, but he really wanted Hades to get dressed…

“You can keep the furred jacket, but can we have the white shirt… dress, thing back?”

Rose’s eyes followed Aza’s until he saw it. “Oh this thing? Yeah, I have no use for it…” he bundled it up and handed it back to Aza.

Aza left and the other man closed the door behind him. 

“That was quick. Was he that good or are you just that bad?” Hades said with a lopsided bastardly grin.

Just when Aza was starting to get comfortable, he felt his blood pressure double. He threw Hades’ smock at him with way more force than necessary.

He shed Rai’s jacket and put his dress on instead. Without the rest it did rather look like the shape and fit of an ascian robe. That was probably the point, some measure of comfort.

Lotus had cleared out, or taken a room, and Aza didn’t care which. Rai had spotted his belt of pouches and took it gratefully. “Oh, thank you, Aza!”

He opened the one with the frog, and it was still fine as far as he could tell. He removed his frog, inspecting her as well as he could. He cast a small healing spell just in case.

Hades cleared his throat.

“Where did you find that frog, Rai-Nunn?” 

“Hm? A pond over by the fae lands, why?” He replied, getting ready to give his frog a lick between the eyes.

“That is a person.”

Rai did not interrupt licking his frog with that statement. “What?”

Aza looked up from counting the losses from his coins. “What?!”

Hades cast some root spell of esuna, and in a poof of aether and smoke, a young Drahn dancer woman stood.

“Finallyyyy!!!” she yelled.


	10. Chapter 10

Once the Madam realized that none of them had any interest in buying her whores’ time, she chased the lot of them out into the alley.

“Alright, so who are you?” Aza asked the xaela woman. Or at least she looked Xaela to him, from his experiences.

“I’m Raqaba,” she said with a little bow.

Aza scrunched up his nose and tilted his head. “Funny name for a Drahn?”

“A what?” she asked, blinking at him.

“A... you. Are you from the steppe,” he tried.

“Huh?”

“The steppe, the AZIM steppe,” Aza tried desperately.

“Oh! Yeah. My family is from there,” she said with a bob of her head.

Hades was stunned. “How did you... get here?”

“Huh, Iunno, I was looking for some firewood, traveling with my troupe. Saw a weird glowy pond and when I got close to look at it and got pulled right in.”

“That was a Faerie circle,” Aza said. “You’re lucky to be alive, do you appreciate that?”

“Appreciate being alive, sure,” sure said.

“There’s a way to the source from Il Mheg, then?” Hades asked. “And more importantly, powerful fae in the source, as well…”

“Uhh maybe. Woke up in a shallow pond and some little winged bastards turned me into a frog as part of a game. Ran into this fellow, and I’ve been with him for the last few weeks.”

“Uhm,” he started quietly. “I’m sorry that I’ve been licking you.”

“S’alright. You fed me and kept me safe, so... it was better than being in the bog or fending for myself against those fae. I can’t be too mad.”

“You ate maggots,” Aza said. “Not that I look down on that, per se…”

“They taste really good when you’re a frog,” she defended. “And it’s not like I could eat anything else! …Can I go home now?”

“You should be able to just warp to wherever you’ve attuned,” Hades said with a shrug. “Hopefully.”

“Well, I’m off then,” she said.  
“Hey wait,” Rai said. “I’ll miss you.”

She looked a little sad about that. He had talked to her for weeks on end, kept her warm and safe… But she couldn’t stay, she was dying to get home. “I’ll always be grateful, alright? Come visit me sometime. Ask for Raqaba in Thavnair, it won’t be long before someone can point you to me.” She leant over and gave him a peck on the cheek before stepping back and warping away.

“Hey, Hades,” Aza whispered, trying not to ruin Rai’s moment. “She went safely, right? Didn’t get obliterated in the void?”

Hades pursed his lips. 

Aza blanched.

“I’m kidding,” he said, barely containing his laughter.

“That isn’t funny!” Aza said, delivering a solid punch to Hades’ shoulder.

They made their way back to Aza’s room before Aza realized that Hades and Rai had still followed him this far. “Hey… No offense, but it’s been a long night, guys. I just want to get some rest, alright?”

Hades and Rai looked at each other, then back to Aza. 

“So you would have me freeze to death in the streets?” Hades asked with a bit of a puppydog expression.

“Rai can keep you warm,” Aza said, closing the door behind him.

“But I’ll sober up,” Hades said, knocking on Aza’s door. Aza opened the door and lobbed a bottle of wine out. The glass cracked, and Rai and Hades both dove to hold the contents in.

“White mage, concentrate on stilling the flow-“ Hades said, staining his shirt with red wine.

Rai closed his eyes, concentrating on just that. He was practiced at this sort of trick anyway… 

“Ah, perfect,” Hades said, removing his hand. The leaking had stopped with a crystalline structure gluing the crack. He glanced at Rai. There were presumably worse bedfellows. He was brought back quite suddenly to his days as a soldier in Garlemald before he became anyone of note. At least Rai didn’t smell bad. Fear had a way of stinking up sweat something awful. 

They headed back to the tent, finally. Hades could admit that he’d been run ragged by the day as well. Even if it was all his fault.


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> kiva beta'd..... Thank u... thank u kiva.

If asked, Hades would say that he’s been having a terrible week. If unasked, he would still be telling anyone who doesn’t want to listen about his woes. Aza hasn’t figured out where he keeps getting wine, but is suspicious that Rai-Nunn has been buying it for him. It’s a fine line between “dramatic and often intoxicated” and “town drunk”, and Hades has been pissing on that line all week.

But aside from the orgy, he hadn’t done anything worth banishing him over. Rather, when the Exarch had asked Aza if he would like Hades banished, he managed to find some sympathy in his heart. And also, they really needed to keep an eye on him. The Auri woman was able to teleport back much the way Aza could… And was that owed to how their bodies were brought through the nothingness? Honestly it gave him such a damn headache. 

Aza did get to thinking that they should probably go try to find whatever lake this was and see if it maybe was a two-way… But then also thought that maybe that was something Urianger and Y’shtola could bother each other about.

The dramatically intoxicated man cum town drunk was talking to anyone who would give him the time of day. Which, funnily enough, increased Hades’ empathy towards the Crystarium’s inhabitants and lowered everyone else’s tolerance for him. His charm was stretched so very thin at this point. 

Aza sat in his room, spending the early evening before he would go to the Exarch’s in his room knitting. Hades was spending more and more time around Aza these days, and even though he would tell him to go away, he… Wouldn’t. Aza hated to admit that his charm began to wear on him, and he found himself laughing at his jokes every now and then. Watching him interact with Rai-Nunn was always a sure way to entertain himself over lunch, too…

The only downside was that several thousand year old habits and ways of life were very hard to break overnight. Without his powers, Hades now found himself walking into walls that he would ordinarily pass through, trying to create things that would not appear, and tripping instead of floating or landing sure-footed in weird places. He was really collecting quite the collection of bruises this week. The drunkenness did not help.

So, when Aza heard a ‘WHAM’ come from his front door, he wasn’t alarmed for much longer than it took him to realize that Hades forgot he couldn’t phase through it. He then heard a splitting noise, which was way more concerning. He looked over just in time to watch Hades desynthesize the door onto himself.

“Oh, fuck!” he exclaimed and covered his head as boards fell down around him and metal pieces clattered to the floor.

“HADES,” Aza threw his head back in irritation, tapping his head against the wall slightly too hard. 

“Sorry, sorry! I didn’t mean to do that,” he said, rubbing his head and stepping over the threshold in the most absolutely depressing thing he’d ever seen him wear. It made him feel genuine pity and discomfort seeing how dirty his outfit had become, how uncharacteristically tousled his hair had become…

“Hey, uh, buddy, are you doing okay?” Aza asked, putting his knitting aside. He knew that even if he tried to ignore him, Hades would make a menace of himself in due time. 

Hades moved his eyes from the floor to Aza’s face with such terrible sadness that it unnerved him. “Not… particularly.”

“Hey… Come sit here, huh?” Aza said, gently patting the spot next to him on the bed. Hades came over obediently, awkwardly climbing over Aza rather than going around. He sat against the headboard with his hands in his lap. Up close, Aza could see the wine stains on his once fine white smock. 

“Hold my hand for a moment, would you?” Hades said softly, his eyes a little too wet.

Aza held his breath for a moment, waited it out, and then placed a hand on top of his open palm, not pulling away when he laced their fingers together. “Uhh… So… What’s all this about?”

Hades closed his eyes for a moment. “Did I ever tell you about the man who used to house the unshattered version of your soul?”

“Not… really. That guy… Your friend from Amaurot, Hythlodaeus, he called you two one soul in two bodies, though. So… He must have been a pretty good friend, huh…”

Hades placed his other hand over his eyes, scrunching his brows together. “He was my everything, Aza. My friend, my lover… He was the dearest person to me in the entire world. And do you want to know something?”

Aza bit his lip. He would probably tell him regardless of what he said. “Um, sure…”

Hades dropped his hand slowly, looking into Aza’s eyes before taking in the rest of his features. “You are the spitting image of him. How cruel Hydaelyn is to pit her champion against me and do this. Oh, how I’ve missed and cursed your face in equal measure. That pretty face that has betrayed me so…”

He could smell the wine on his breath at this distance, easily. 

“I’m sorry,” Aza said stiltedly, feeling horrifically, almost nauseatingly, awkward, “That sounds… hard.” Maybe not as hard as the millions of people, perhaps billions, that he’s tossed into the furnace of the rejoinings— but that could be used against him later. He was probably so drunk that it wouldn’t stick.

“His name was Prometheus,” Hades said, his face unsure if it should be showing love or grief, and it ended up somewhere in the middle. “And you are so much like him in ways that your shards had never before been. He would have envied you. You, with all of your friends… It took him hundreds of years to even confess to me. You’re what? Forty, with two lovers?”

Aza nodded, looking away awkwardly. “I’m sure he wouldn’t have been jealous of everything…”

Hades gave him another sad look as he brought Aza’s hand up to his face. He rested his cheek on the back of it. Aza could feel the scruff coming in. Had Hades been shaving before now? He must have been… The oddity of this moment almost distracted him from the fact that he had referenced this before… Oh, right. Ugh.

“So you knew about all of that, huh?” Aza said, feeling the numbness set in whenever this came up.

“Of course,” Hades said, frowning. 

Aza’s eyes unfocused. “So… You knew about it. And I’m apparently so much like your old lover, and look like him…” He paused, then said with forced casualness, “If I’d been him, would you’ve rescued me?”

Hades gave him a strange look, almost as if he’d been struck. “Of course I would have. I… I didn’t know it was happening until it was already over. I was busy then, too consumed with my activities to see if your shard had floated to the top of the lifestream again. I’m sorry.” 

“You can’t tell anyone,” Aza said with a grimace. “I hate how people look at me when they find out.”

“I won’t,” Hades said, blinking back tears in spite of himself.

“Are you just really drunk, or are you feeling some genuine sympathy?” Aza asked uncomfortably. This whole situation was just plain unnerving.

“What, it can’t be both?” he asked with mock indignance, though it didn’t last very long. He sighed. “I never got to kiss him goodbye.”

Aza did not like where that was headed. “Hades… I really can’t.”

“Ah… But you can,” Hades said, his lips ghosting Aza’s knuckles. It took all of his willpower not to smash his fist against his mouth. He didn’t need to go get his hand treated for the cuts he’d surely make off of Hades’ teeth.

“And yet, I feel no real need to. I may look like him, but I’m not him.”

“You’re slightly more than 64% him!” Hades protested loudly. “Imagine if we’d squeezed in a few more rejoinings…”

“Yeah, I’d just be really mad and that many more times stronger. It probably wouldn’t be great for you, Hades,” Aza said flatly. 

Hades laughed at that, not looking concerned in the slightest, and leaned in until their heads bumped together. Aza felt his ear fold against Hades’s stupid head. 

“I’m not a different person now that I have Ardbert’s shard, you know,” Aza tried again with very strained patience, holding himself still as Hades started getting... really cuddly. Okay, Aza really wasn’t liking where this was going now. He had no idea how to react to any of this without it ending up with Hades having a dramatic tantrum on his floor, “I don’t think your plan would have worked.”

Hades didn’t seem to be listening to him. Typical. “…He was an incredible lay, Aza. You have to understand that no one has fucked like him in over ten thousand years,” Hades said with a bitter laugh. “Our connection… You can’t even imagine how deep our love was.”

Aza was caught somewhere between disgust and pity, like he usually was with Hades… But this time just just listened and held back his reactions. “That sounds difficult.”

“Isn’t everything?” Hades said, murmuring against Aza’s hair. He closed his eyes at last, placing his hands around Aza’s shoulders.

“Are you gonna fall asleep on me?” Aza asked, so uncomfortable, but also sort of unwilling to assault him again today.

Hades’s head slid onto Aza’s shoulder. His hair, softer than it looked but slightly damp with sweat, stuck to Aza’s cheek. 

“I swear if you barf on me…” Aza said warningly, but Hades was already fast asleep. Aza laid him down, trying not to wake him. He gazed down at the sleeping man. No, he couldn’t fully conceptualize his pain, but neither could he fully fathom the suffering he’d caused. What to do with an unruly God, really?

Aza took up his knitting to calm his nerves as Hades slept quietly beside him. He didn’t know why he stayed there patiently. Maybe he was afraid he’d choke in his sleep or something. Or cause more trouble when he woke up. He was still sore about the asshole causing an impromptu orgy in his room when left to his own devices before. Ugh.

After a couple hours and the rest of a sweater knit, Aza started to feel drowsy himself. He looked down at Hades. The man was a monster, but… also just a man. He didn’t feel like sleeping on the floor, and the bed was so big… He glanced at the clock. It was well into the evening now, and while the Exarch would greet him enthusiastically into his chambers regardless of the time, Aza’d feel bad interrupting his sleep. He relented, hunkering down into the bedding, sleeping with his back against Hades’ shoulder.

When he opened his eyes again, or was conscious of doing so, he found himself not in his room, but in Amaurot. It was startling since, for one, everything didn’t look as big as it had. He was eye-level with all of the people, and all of the people actually had faces. He caught his reflection in a window, noting that his clothes matched the others, save for his mask. He didn’t recognize it, but it had a similar shape to a raven mask, dusted a sooty grey.

He walked around aimlessly until he finally saw a familiar masked man. Hades, of course, sitting on a bench, gazing out into the city with his head propped up on an upturned palm. Aza strode forward. This was really, really lucid for a dream. Hades looked up, seeming slightly surprised, then overjoyed.

“Prometheus,” he said. “You weren’t at home.”

Aza didn’t know that he could even look at anyone with such love in his features. “I’m… not Prometheus,” he said slowly.

Hades’ looked puzzled, then annoyed, but not angry. “Oh, who are you then?”

“Uh, I’m Aza,” he said.

Hades’ posture deflated and he looked away. “Even in my sweet dreams, all that I have left of him, you would ruin?”

“H-hey! I didn’t mean to be here. I didn’t even know how I got here? This is your dream, I guess?”

“A bit of a dream, a bit of a memory,” he clarified. “I come here when I sleep.”

Of course an ancient being like Hades would have mastery of his dreamscape.

“So, what, you were just dreaming too loudly?” Aza asked somewhat incredulously.

“Essentially,” he said with a shrug. “It isn’t typical of people who sleep near me, but you must be an exception because you hold my beloved’s soul.”

“Um, so what now?” Aza said somewhat sheepishly. “Can I leave?” 

Hades stared at him for a moment. “Well, if one of wakes up, surely… Usually, I just spend time with Prometheus, but you probably won’t let me do what I usually do- don’t look at me like that with his face,” Hades said sharply. “I’m surprised you fell asleep near enough to me anyway.”

“You fell asleep in my room.”

“Mm, so I did. Well, we have…” Hades pulled up his sleeve to glance at his watch. It was surprisingly modest looking, “About five hours left of this dream. You can go wherever you want, I suppose. Just don’t muck up the place. We are in my mind, after all.”

Aza looked at him, considering. “I guess… Can you show me the things you wished that I remembered?”

Hades looked surprised, then he closed his eyes and chuckled, his fingers pressed against his forehead. “Very well. Come, I’ll show you your workshop. Or… his workshop.”


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Further dreaming

Aza found himself at the workshop after a short warp through one of Hades’ dark portals. Even though it was a dream, he could still feel the sensations to a point…Like feeling them through a leather glove.

They came through to stand outside a building that looked like it had been made by a complete maniac. Hades read the look on Aza’s face and nodded. “He had… his own aesthetic.”

“Um, and what would you call this aesthetic?”

“Utter hatred for neighbors.”

That made sense. Between the half-made Creations on the lawn, the weird mash up of architectural styles on the outside… He couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to live near that. Hades placed his hand on the door. It lit up, drawing Hades’ sigil on the door briefly before unlocking.

He stepped through, ducking under the enormous bird skeleton mounted to the wall that cut into the headspace. Immediately inside was what would ordinarily be a living room, but instead looked more like an explosion went off in a library. Hades strode to the kitchen and pulled a bottle of wine out of a cupboard. He poured a couple glasses, handing one to Aza.

Aza took it and stared at it for a moment. They were in a dream, so would this have any effect? But the dream was awfully real, so maybe it would. Or maybe it was just for the appearance of it all. And he knew how much Hades valued that…

“This is his workshop as well as his home. Careful where you step or what door you open.” And to demonstrate, Hades stepped over to what seemed like an ordinary bathroom door. As he opened it, mist poured into the room. Beyond the door was a jungle absolutely brimming with birds of every shape and size. Hades closed the door quickly before they could come into the room.

“Prometheus had little regard for the laws of physics. He always seemed to be able to find a way through the hardest problems with that big, weird brain of his. He was a brilliant academic. Perhaps too brilliant,” he said with a sigh. “Nothing was ever off the table. His connection with the lifestream attuned him to that which most were not.”

Hades stepped over to a diagram of a bird. “Also he loved birds.” Hades sighed, squeezing his eyes shut.

“It’s… You know, it’s not easy to face the fact that were more calamities to happen, you would surely survive. I thought you might become a friend, that you would see the worth in what I was doing.”

Aza stepped forward, taking a deep drink of the wine. This probably wasn’t good, psychologically, for his alcoholism. 

“I understand it, Hades. I just don’t agree that we think and feel less than an ascian. Amaurotine, whatever,” Aza replied as the wine stained his lips. “Maybe we have less perspective, and we suffer for it… But we’re working on it. Imagine what we would have been like with you providing for us instead of killing us.”

Hades closed his eyes a moment before he opened them slowly. “You think I didn’t try that? At least twice I was labelled a witch and chased from the towns I tried to help. And _yes_, I was smart about it.”

“You still got chased out though.”

Hades frowned and crossed his arms. “I am excellent at manipulating people. But rarely do you savages want to do more than eat and murder. Asking them to be kind to one another is beyond even my power.”

Aza dropped his shoulders. “Maybe. But it genuinely feels like you’ve been trying the rejoining thing more than rehabilitating the young races.”

Hades glanced away. “It’s like having only toddlers for company.”

“Is it? Or are you just so sad and angry that you can’t connect with anyone properly? Didn’t you almost call the scions your allies? What disqualified us was moot. I still beat you even with my soul tearing in half!”

“...With help.”

“Oh come on!”

They stared at one another for several seconds.

“I’m not stupid, I know the rules,” Hades said. “The conquered must learn to live under the winner’s rules.”

“That’s kind of a grim way of putting it--”

“But it’s _true_. If you manage to deconstruct the Garlean empire, you will be left with hundreds of thousands of people who know a singular way of life being forced to change. And we know how mortals deal with change!”

Aza tore the mask off of his face. “There is no such thing as a bloodless revolution. You should know that. But it’s the price we pay for the hope of such.”

“Ah… Hope,” Hades repeated with Aza’s tone. He threw back his glass of wine, setting it down almost hard enough to break on the single bare spot on the table. He sauntered over to Aza and brushed the hair out of his face. Aza restrained himself from dislocating his wrist. “You carry what? Forty years of heartache? Likely more than the average person has had to endure.”

“It isn’t that I don’t sympathize or empathize with your predicament,” Aza started, “But I also can’t subject everyone I love to terror and misery.”

Hades looked cooly at Aza. “Mm.. I always did worry that my timing might be off. If only we were ten years earlier or twenty years later, we might have circumvented you. And your loved ones may have all died anyway. Without you, they’re simply prey in the jaws of life’s mercilessness.”

Aza could not refute that. Simply the number of times he had rescued them.

“But that isn’t what happened,” Aza said.”So who cares?”

Hades let out a bitter chuckle. “Right you are! It is only in my dreams that I am allowed to play out my meandering little facades of life. I always wonder “what if?”, but it rarely produces anything actionable.”

Aza looked around the room, avoiding Hades’ intense stare. “What else is in here?”

Hades raised his brows. “Well for that, you’ll have to go downstairs.” He extended his arm towards the staircase. “And don’t miss any of the steps, or you’ll end up in a pocket dimension.”

Aza set the wine glass down atop a glass case with mounted flight feathers from dozens of species of birds before he strode towards the ominous staircase. Each step had just a little bit of give, affording the sensation of stepping directly on a series of booby traps. Aza rounded the landing and ended up in the work part of the workshop. There were countless jars, papers, vacuum tubes full of aether, word tables, targets, and lab animals in enclosures. Between the lights, the sheer amount of things, and the utter absurdity of both, Aza was stunned.

“Holy shit,” Aza said.

“That’s the usual reaction, even among immortals, if you can believe it,” Hades said. “He worked tirelessly in the field of aetherology, the lifestream, and combat spells. If you managed to memorize even a single page that he had written in here, you could alter the school of thought on magicks.”

“Urianger would come on sight.”

“Ew, but yes. He would.”

They managed to tour the rest of the rooms; Hades calmly described what Prometheus did in there on a typical day, and Aza nodded along. It was fascinating, actually. There were facets that he related with, and bits that he might have if he were immortal.

They eventually ended up in Prometheus’ bedroom. Aza’s pulse quickened in instinctive fear. He’d wanted to kiss Prometheus goodbye, hadn’t he?

“I’m not going to do anything to you,” Hades said simply, feeling the awful vibes off of Aza. “You confuse my war strategies and methods with the primitive barbarism of your kind.” Hades walked over to the nightstand, his hand hovering a moment before pulling it open. He fished out a handwritten letter in a foreign script. Yet in the confines of the dream, Aza was able to read it with ease.

“This is the letter your unsundered self wrote me for our anniversary. It’s a bid to escape the city and live in the wilderness and raise children.”

Aza stared at it. It did look an awful lot like his handwriting. Why would an ancient being ever have the same unpracticed scrawl as him? “Why are you showing me this?”

“... Because you’re the only shred I have left of him, and… I don’t why, but I want you to love me. I know you’re not him, I do! But…” Hades trailed off, his mouth pursing and his eyebrows furrowing.

“No, no. I think I get it,” Aza said quietly. “So, um, did you ever…?”

“No,” Hades replied. “I mean. I never wanted to leave the city. But the possibility of such seemed possible with the idea that infinity stretched beyond us. It was exciting and new, and I knew I could come back to it whenever I needed it. But.”

Hades, uncharacteristically, found himself unable to speak. 

“But then the Doom came,” Aza supplied.

Hades pulled his lips into his mouth and nodded once. His shoulders drooped.

Aza was uncomfortable. But mostly for watching this man crumble in real time.

“Yes,” he whispered. “It might have been a blessing had the sundering killed me as well…” Hades trailed off and folded his hands before breaking them apart and spreading them wide. “Alas! The Fates have other plans, now don’t they?”

Aza pursed his lips and nodded. “Yeah. Yeah, they do.” Aza shifted uncomfortably. “So.. What now?”

“Now? Now I wait to see if I age and die. I likely will, shattered as I am. And then maybe I’ll come back without my memories, like the rest of the Amaurotines. An era ended, all those that would remember it dead...” Hades slouched again with a heavier incline. “Oh well! It’s all up to Elidibus now!”

Aza nodded numbly. “I’m sorry, Hades.”

He didn’t need to state for what. Hades understood that it was an apology for killing him, for the fact that he would kill Elidibus.

“But I took your words seriously,” Aza said, perking up as if he suddenly remembered something.

“Oh?”

“Yeah. You wanted people to remember you, right? You know that troupe of actors, the one you gave an airship to?”

“Oh… Oh! Yes, of course. They’re delightful.”

Aza placed his hands on his hips. “They’re doing a play about you. It’s very good.”

Hades raised his brows and mirrored Aza as he placed his hands on his own hips. “Is that so?”

“It’s very good. The theater was in tears by the last hour.”

“The entire theater?”

“...Yes,” Aza said a bit dodgily.

Hades tilted his head and put it together quickly. “It was a private performance for the Warrior of Light. You’re the one who bawled on my behalf.”

“You can’t prove a goddamn thing,” Aza snipped.

“Oh, don’t be so cold. What’s the title?”

“The Tragedy of Emet-Selch.”

He sighed, letting his arms fall straight down. “I can’t be mad. My story was a tragedy, wasn’t it?” 

Aza nodded. Of course it was. A man dealt a terrible fate and allowed the time and power to react to it? Awful. Death was a mercy for most. “Yes, but still. It is very good.”

Hades shrugged as he walked a half circle around Aza. “And I won’t ever get to see it…”

“Most people don’t get to see the recorded histories of their lives. Tends to only be relevant, you know, when they die. Which you didn’t even really do.”

“So I should count my blessings?” Hades asked, sitting sulkily on Prometheus’ bed.

“Sort of,” Aza said. “Um, I could find you a therapist, maybe? It’s not like I want you to suffer.”

Hades flopped back, removed his mask, and pressed his hands to his face. “That’s not what I remember from our battle.”

“Oh, come on! You were dropping ancient magic right on my head! If you died quicker it might not have hurt so much!

Hades stilled, then patted the spot next to him on the bed, still laid prone.

Aza ambled over and sat on the bed for lack of a better thing to do. 

“I won’t struggle against you anymore if you promise to stay out of my dreams,” Hades said. “It’s all I have left of him. Well, besides you. But you’re more like an unruly step-child.”

“I didn’t mean to,” Aza mumbled. He turned to lean on his hand and look down at Hades. He looked younger than he did with his Solus costume, though possessing the same features. He sort of wondered how that all worked. Hydaelyn worked in mysterious ways, didn’t she? He briefly reflected on the life his past self had with Hades. Lovers… With him? He could see the charm. Of course all the villainy had soured it, though. 

Aza must have been staring too long because Hades eventually opened his eyes again. “Don’t look at me like that, either. It makes it so hard, you know.”

Aza looked away. “So hard to what?”

“So hard to not kiss you, idiot,” he said, covering his eyes with his arm. “My dreams follow a specific sort of… let’s call it a calibration. It would still hurt me if you decided to beat me up for the fifth time this moon.”

Aza looked down and him with a grimace. “You just won’t let it go, will you? You have your dream Prometheus to kiss.”

Hades rolled onto his side, facing away from Aza.

“What… What?” Aza leaned over him, confused by his body language.

“In my dreams, usually, Prometheus is just angry with me. So I find my bed and go to sleep. Or I stare out into the veranda and try to render my mind blank.”

Oh my god that was sad. He dreamt of the day his boyfriend broke up with him and just crawling into his bed to sleep? What a fucking downer. “So you want what you can’t have. Pretty regular for trying to move on, you know?” Aza said.

Hades shifted his arm to give him a dour look. 

“When’s the last time you even got laid? Like in a normal way that wasn’t in my inn room?”

Hades turned his head back towards Aza. “I didn’t even finish.”

Aza sighed in recognition of that fact.

Hades continued. “Oh... sixty years? My wife died shortly after giving birth to our second son. Mortals are so frail.”

“I’m sure that R--”

“I’m not fucking Rai-_fucking_-Nunn, Aza. That’s paramount to animal abuse. You can never tell when he’s sober, either.”

He wasn’t entirely wrong.

“So…” Aza started. “Maybe you can fix your dreams, at least.”

Hades furrowed his brows. “It’s a little hard, you know. They’re subject to the laws of my Creation. You spent time in Amaurot, so you must have learned about how it can go wrong. I can’t come here and just make myself forget that he’s angry with me and that he died that way.”

Aza laid down and turned his head towards Hades. “I have an idea.”

Aza took both of Hades’ hands in his and began to talk. It wasn’t what Hades was hoping it was about.

“...So you’re saying you’ll engage in therapy sessions with me to shift how I think of our relationship ending. And I can role-play apologizing to you to alter the dreams where he is angry with me…”

Aza nodded with a grin on his face. “And then you’ll actually have somewhere to go at night and we won’t have to kick you out of the Crystarium for being a terrible citizen.”

“I’m not a terrible citizen. I was at the library just last week fixing the aetherology books.”

“Yeah, I mean, before you spilled wine on them you were.”

“...Oh, did I? Ah yes, that’s right.” He sighed.

“And then you haven’t been back since, but you’re supposed to go every day…” Aza led in.

“...Right.”

“And I’m trying really hard to be kind to you ‘cause I know you’re just really traumatized and sad… So. Work with me here, alright?”

“...Fine,” Hades said.

Aza beamed at Hades for the first time that night, and for the first time Hades had seen Prometheus smile for quite a long time outside of his memories. He closed his eyes as they began to tear up, surprised that he felt Aza’s arms around him. He buried his face in Aza’s chest and wrapped his arm around him. 

“You can let it out,” Aza said.

And he did.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Snow day at the Crystarium

Aza woke slightly earlier than usual, his ears flicking as he noticed how cold the sensitive inner skin was. He pulled the blanket closer, almost startling when his nose bumped another nose. He blearily opened his eyes, remembering who that might be as Hades' calm, sleeping face came into focus. For the past few weeks they'd been engaging in their dream time therapy. It was a lot of work for the both of them, but Hades had actually been trying, and Aza surprised himself in his level of competent advice. 

Hades slowly roused, seeming to sense Aza's face right next to his. "Is this the part where we kiss?" he asked in a sleep deepened voice.

Aza pushed his shoulder under the blankets, noting how toasty he was. "No, but I'll let you hold me. I'm freezing..."

Hades chuckled as he opened his arms, and Aza wormed his way in to tuck his head under his chin. Aza would never tell Hades this, because he would use it against him, but he did genuinely enjoy the contact like this. He couldn't place it properly, but when Hades wasn't trying to kill everyone or ruin the universe... His soul almost seemed to reverberate in a way that was so inherently comforting. Also his pecs were really nice and soft.

Hades wrapped his arms around Aza, letting him soak in all of his wonderful heat. 

"Why is it so damn cold in here...? Did I leave the window open?" Aza asked, face muffled against Hades' surprisingly plush chest. 

"It's snowing," Hades said as he looked out the window.

"Weird," Aza said.

"Snowing is an understatement, perhaps."

And then, from the comfort of Hades' bosom, Aza's linkpearl chirped.

"What's up, babe? Need me to warm you up?" Aza said to the Exarch that he was sure was on the other line.

"Who are you going to warm up?" Hades scoffed. Aza ignored him.

"Maybe later," the Exarch said, turning away from Lyna as his cheeks flushed. "But I'm going to need your help... The city's in chaos. No one's seen snow before, and frankly, we aren't prepared for it at all. Especially not this much... All the guards are out to keep the order, but we still have fights breaking out across the city."

Aza sighed. "I'll be there as soon as I can."

"Be careful, Aza," the Exarch said, letting the line close.

"No rest for the wicked?" Hades asked, hot breath against his cold ears.

Aza groaned as he sat up. He had gotten so used to the reduction in pain that he shuddered as the noticed the ache in his back from the cold. "Apparently the snow's driving everyone mad. Crystarium's underprepared, so someone's gotta go bust a few skulls. And that someone is me, as always."

Aza lurched out of bed to go put himself together. He didn’t have his Ishgardian coat, and he was sorely missing it right about now… 

Hades pulled on his clothes over his leggings and undershirt. They were a far cry from anything he would have picked for himself, but his choices had narrowed significantly since all of this had started. His trousers were well-made, woven from dark cloth. His sweater was hand-knit by the Warrior of Darkness himself, and patterned with chocobos. He would have minded the hit to his dignity more had the sweater not been so warm and comfortable. He did prefer his skirts to the trousers, but that apparently wasn't in fashion for men.

"Fuck, no kidding," Aza said as he looked outside. Fat flakes were coming down in an absolutely unreasonable torrent. "This is bad."

Hades joined him at the window. "In Garlemald we called that recruiting weather."

Aza gave him an odd look.

"Because it would kill entire battalions-"

"Ah," of course it would be morbid like that. "Wait, you don't think..."

"That half of the Crystarium's inhabitants are going to freeze to death? And that the other half are going to die of asphyxiation trying to start fires in closed areas?"

"...Uggggghh."

"Bring me with you, I may be able to help," Hades said, his bastardly expression fading into something more serious. "I have a lot of experience with dealing with this sort of crisis. THey didn’t have to recruit so often after I ascended as Legatus."

Aza nodded. He was a little surprised, but a little not. The Crystarium had become a home even to Hades.

They finished dressing as warmly as they could manage. Aza wrenched open the door to find snow had made its way even to his doorstep. "Oh, this is going to be fun," Hades said as he looked down the stairs. 

"We could teleport..." Aza said with a frown. It might be safer to ride the rail all the way down with how icy the stairs had become. 

"You could. My aether is still not too happy whenever I try... And we shouldn't split up. It's not safe in this sort of cold."

They approached the massive spiral staircase, Aza holding the hand rail and seeming like he was genuinely going to try. He looked back, noticing Hades had gone missing. "Hey! You said you were coming, don't tell me you went back to bed!"

Hades reemerged with a rolled up carpet from the room and raised eyebrows. "Feel like a bit of sledding?"

Aza sat behind Hades, holding tight as they flew down the snow and ice buried stairs, picking up enough speed that once they reached the bottom and Hades realized that they had no great way to stop, he steered them as well as he could away from pillars and signposts as they made lift off into the pendants. They crashed into a snow bank no worse for the wear. 

"Again," Aza said, sitting up out of the snow. 

“After,” Hades replied, standing and seeming to marvel at the vision. It was beautiful, of course, but terrifying all the same. They stood in knee-high snow looking at a line of people forty deep trying to buy provisions from the sole restaurant. The poor waitresses were shivering as they tried to keep inhabitants towards the end of the line calm. There seemed to be no guarantee that they would be able to provide for those at the end.

This would get bad, fast.

Shivering in the line was a familiar face; Aza felt a little guilty that he didn’t worry about him sooner. Rai stood in the midst of all of this, cheeks red and lips turning a little blue.

Aza came up, moving as quickly as he could with all the effort it took to walk in it.

“Rai! Rai-Nunn!”

The man turned towards Aza as he puffed warm air on frigid fingers. “Aza! The damn rain’s all cold.”

“... Snow. It’s called snow. But I guess there’s no reason you’d actually know that, huh,” Aza said. 

Hades looked out over the crowd. Yeah. This was bad. Half of them were underdressed, and the other half weren’t used to the cold enough to properly withstand it. Save for the big, furry cat men he figured. And by how enviously some of the people in line were eyeing them, he wouldn’t put it past them to try to make their own fur coats…

“We need to get him inside,” Hades said. “Several of them, actually. Look at his hands, he’s getting frostbite. So is that woman there… In fact, anyone without gloves. We need to get them out of this, quickly.”

Aza rubbed his temples with a hand. The line was getting loud enough that it would be difficult to get their attention…

But Hades clearly had no issue. He hopped up onto a wooden supply crate and whistled so loud, so piercingly that the line stopped in surprise to look at him. Hades projected his voice expertly to the crowd. “Listen up! Look at your hands. If they’re going numb or have changed color, come follow me or else risk losing them.”

The crowd began murmuring again. 

“I don’t care how long you’ve been waiting for bread. We can worry about that from inside the Crystal Tower,” he said, earning surprised looks from the crowd.

Aza seemed surprised. “There? But I don’t think we’re allowed to bring them all in there overnight…”

“It’s the only place around that’s going to have the supplies we need,” Hades said with a sigh. “The Exarch will simply just have to deal with it!”

“There’s a lotta monsters in there still,” Aza said, following Hades as he led the group towards the Crystarium.

“Well, what do you think you’re for?” Hades asked with a grin.

Aza sighed, but in truth slicing through some abominations sounded like a good way to relieve some stress. “Alright everyone! Just do as he says!”

Hades aligned them to stand the tall and stronger in front to weaker and smaller behind to mitigate fatigue as they marched. 

Aza walked behind just to speak to Rai-Nunn, who was absolutely not built for this. He shivered badly, tucking his fingers into his armpits. Aza noticed a little aether continually bursting from Rai.

“Are you just… constantly healing yourself?” Aza asked, looking him over.

“Have to,” he said, teeth chattering. “Hands just keep going numb…”

Aza was grateful for that at least. “When we get to the Tower, I need you to look everyone over, okay?” Aza said, placing a hand on the other man’s lower back.

“Of course. Anything for you, Warrior of Darkness,” he said with a genuine grin.

Aza laughed. “Who told you to call me that?”

“Ah, just damn near everyone. They thought I was being disrespectful of you,” he said with a chuckle as he stumbled. Aza snagged him by his jacked collar, hauling him back to his feet.

“God’s, you’re quick,” he mumbled, latching onto Aza’s shirt front as he regained his footing.

The Exarch stood outside, and it took a moment for everyone to recognize him. No longer was he dressed in his personal costume, but with clothing clearly found inside the Crystal Tower itself. Nowhere else would an ironworks jumpsuit and coat be found.

“Hey, nice duds,” Aza said, jogging up through the snow towards him. He had Rai’s belt in hand to keep him from falling or getting lost.

“I assume you want to bring them inside,” the Exarch said, already trying to work out how he felt about it. It was clearly an emergency. Before he could speak, Hades decided to.

“Exarch, open your doors lest you want the lot of them to die tonight,” Hades said, striding through the snow with practiced ease.

“Well, when you put it like that…” the Exarch said with stuffed-down irritation. The choice was being made for him, it seemed.

“Oh, don’t fret. I’m sure your hero can protect them,” he said as he brushed snow away from the stairs with his legs. “You_ will_ want to have your guard shovel this, Exarch.”

“Very astute, thank you, Emet-Selch.”

The Exarch signaled to the guards, and though with a hesitant air, they pulled open the palace doors to see the crowd within.

“Funny, I had asked for Aza’s assistance, but here you are, too,” the Exarch said mildly. 

“You wanted order, did you not? Why break up fights when you can just take away the reason everyone is fighting. Besides, I’m going to fix this problem.”

The Exarch’s eyebrows raised. “Oh? Do you have your abilities back?”

“I didn’t lose my wit and knowledge. There’s bound to be something I can repurpose to heat the buildings here.”

Well. He wasn’t wrong. And the Exarch was clever, but he wasn’t an inventor.

“Now, go do your leaderly duties and check on your inhabitants, hmmm?” Hades said, standing straight for once as he gazed down at the other man. 

The Exarch frowned, but called his guard to begin organizing just that. 

Once in the main part of the building, the people spread out a bit. They were cautioned against opening doors, though concessions needed to be made. Hades pulled open a hidden restroom door that snaked from the lobby and presented it to the crowd. 

He knew why he knew the place so well, but it didn’t make him any happier, the Exarch thought to himself. 

“He’s uh, excited, isn’t he?” Aza asked with an apologetic smile.

“If only he could be so spurred with his sentence,” the Exarch said with a sigh. “But I don’t have any better ideas.”

Hades saw himself into an area that he knew would be brimming with salvageable parts. He had expected copious dust, and he found plenty… But a lot of it had been cleared and organized by someone else. He picked up a memo linking the last person to fiddle around here to be a Garlean. Fascinating. He gathered what he needed here and there, snagging tools as he went. He found a work bench, and though he found not using his aether to be irritating, the matter of putting together a heater was simple enough. 

He came back out to the Exarch’s guards and attendants trying to keep everyone in order. Instead of cracking skulls together, Aza stood holding a full sheet pan aloft of what seemed to be scones. He walked around slowly, letting the hungry people finally eat.

On the other end of the room, Rai was healing frostbite in some poor old woman’s feet. She thanked him so adamantly that he could tell from where he stood.

Hades set the heater down a little harder than strictly necessary to pull attention, and it worked for the most part.

“Behold! A fireless heater,” and he bent down, switched it on, and let the warm air start flowing. The citizens crowded around, even if only the people in the front could really feel it. It was awfully cold, after all.

The Exarch looked at it dryly, then back up at him. “We’ll need at least a hundred of those,” he said blandly. “Or, failing that, at least a really big one.”

Hades crossed his arms. “Well of course we’re going to need a whole slew of them. This is showing as much as it will be teaching. I’m going to need the following parts, and plenty of hands… I have another little invention that you’re going to need.”

Aza came back around with just one scone on his platter. “That’s great, Em! So… how long is this going to take?”

He frowned. “Well, that depends on the sort of help I get, doesn’t it? But everyone should get to sleep tonight. Should.”

A little daunting, considering that it was still morning.


End file.
